Seven Deadly Blades
by ToxicMeltdown
Summary: Toxic, Raven, Monkey, Death, Angel, Ares, and Muse are a group of seven teenagers who start out playing online games and end up doing so much more. Each one recruited for their unique skills and characteristics this story is of how they overcome impossible tasks and do what most would consider impossible for such a small group of people. Some ideas based off Sword Art Online.
1. Seven Deadly Blades

**A/N This story is is based off the ideas of Sword Art Online and several other books I have read, the main one being The Eye of the Minds. I wasn't sure if I should call this a SAO fan fiction, but I figured I would give it credit. **

**I came up with the idea of this story on a spur of the moment. I only have the vaguest of ideas of what I am going to do with it, but I thought it could be good. The ideas for the characters in this story are based off of people I know in real life. I will be inserted in this story, but I will not say who I am.**

**Anyways enjoy the first chapter of "Seven Deadly Blades."**

**Disclaimer - I have no intention of hacking/crashing any site mentioned in the story. They are used so people will understand what I mean.**

* * *

I'm sure you have used a computer before. I am almost equally sure you know that there are ways of hacking into programs in computers. And if you have used a computer or played online games for any considerable amount of time you know that people tend to group up together online. This is where this story takes off.

On the internet there is a fairly well known group of seven people. They are known by the name The Seven Deadly Sins, even though none of them go by any of the seven deadly sins. Their names are Toxic, Raven, Monkey, Angel, Ares, Death, and Muse. Each one is a member of the group for various reasons. They all do various jobs on the internet over their website such as : Leveling others up in games, hacking into people's save files for them, designing web pages, creating music, and hacking into various programs and web pages.

Angel is one of the four who helps people in games and one of the primary two who hack into save files and games. Out of the four he is the worst at games, even so he is still great at games compared to the average person just not as good as the others. He is the better of the two at hacking into games and save files.

Death is also one of the four who helps people in games. While he is tied for second in actual skill he is much better at keeping calm so is considered second best at playing the games. While he can hack into games and save files he is not amazing at it and finds it boring most of the time.

Ares is the best player at games not only because of his skill, but also his versatility. If you can play a game in more than one way he is great at all of them. He also helps with making music when Muse needs it, he can play drums, guitar, and bass.

Muse is one of the girls in the group and is very artistic. She creates webpages, music,draws pictures, and designs character skins for some games. She is the one who handles their web page and creates most of the music, with some help from Ares, Monkey, and Raven. If she really needs it Toxic will help her out. While she isn't very good at hacking and is the worst at games, which is still pretty good compared to average player, she more than makes up for in artistic ability and how she does everything perfectly.

Monkey is tied for second in terms of skill at games with Death, but loses because of how he can lose his cool. He is the other primary game and save file hacker of the group and while he isn't as fast or good at it as Angel, give him enough time and he can get most things done that someone wants. He also helps Muse by playing the piano and is Toxic's right hand man.

Raven is the second girl of the group and while she can help with the save files and games if need be, she is primarily the one who hacks into programs and web pages along with Toxic. She helps Muse out with female vocals and art design. While they never say it, it is believed by the other members that Raven and Toxic are a couple.

Toxic is the leader of the group. He primarily hacks into programs and web pages and manages everything that goes on with the group. He is actually just below Monkey in terms or skill, but does not work well with people he does not know so doesn't play unless it is with his group. When the group plays he is the strategist and while he isn't the best at games he comes second to none at strategy. He also handles personal request from people. On two separate occasions he was asked to hack into something and crash it in under 12 hours. One time it was a MMO and another it was a webpage. Both times he crashed them in under 6 hours and to add insult to injury made sure they knew who did it. He also helps Muse with male vocals if she needs it.

They will do just about any job on the internet for a price and are widely known. While separate they are very good games, Ares and Death considered in the top 100 gamers out there, together they have never lost a game no matter the genre. They do tournaments from time to time and usually come in first, sometimes Ares and Death do tournaments and always come in top three at least.

They communicate in one of the most secure ways possible. It is known as a Web of Trust. Basically everyone has a private key and there is a public key, both a series of numbers. You lock a message with both keys and send it to someone. They need the public key and your private key to unlock the message. They change their public key every month. Everyone keeps the others private keys and that month's public one in at least three different locations, not including their computer.

They only know three things about each other on a personal level. First is that Toxic, Raven, Monkey live in the same area of the U.S., Death, Angel, and Ares live in the same area of the U.K., and Muse lives in Japan. Second everyone, except for Monkey and Muse, is white. Monkey is black and Muse is Japanese. Third is each other's age. Monkey is 18, Toxic, Ares, and Death are 17, and Angel, Raven, and Muse are 16.

Doing this they make enough for each of them to get 3,000 dollars a month and have enough extra for Toxic to build them each a new computer and laptop every 6 months . They each use three computers so they just cycle out the oldest either selling the old one, storing it away, or taking it apart. Most of them have a cover for why they have this money. Raven, Toxic, and Monkey just say they don't need a cover, Death says he fixes other people's computers, Ares says he enters skateboarding competitions, Angel's parents don't pay much attention to him so he just says he has a job at some nameless store, and Muse says she sells art online, which is true in a way.

This story is about this interesting group of people.

* * *

**P.O.V. Muse**

Muse opened her eyes looking at her ceiling. Glancing over at her clock she saw it was 2:14 P.M. None of the group went to actual school, Ares, Death, Angel, and herself had convinced their parents that regular school would hold them back. Though Toxic, Raven, or Monkey never said it, but they had probably done the same. They all just took online classes that were extremely easy for all of them.

She stepped out of bed and walked over to her computers turning them on and changing while it came on. She asked everyone if they were on before going to brush her teeth and fix her hair. After brushing her teeth she stared at herself in the mirror for a moment.

She had hazel eyes and wore black, wire frame glasses, she stood at about five feet four inches tall and had low c-cup breast, and she dressed like a guy because she liked guy's clothes better, she wore dark green cargo pants, a black shirt that had a blank canvas, and she had some normal grey sneakers. She also had long, black hair with bright yellow streaks and pierced left ear and right eyebrow, both of them music notes. The reason for this was because one day Toxic had asked everyone to dye their hair an unnatural color and to get at least one piercing he also said to come up with a word and then send him the information on their hair, piercing (s), and word.

He never said why, but they had agreed because he rarely asked them for anything and they had all been thinking about dyeing their hair and piercings anyways. He was also the reason they had all met each other and became close friends. He was also why she had gotten out of her depression and not killed herself. Before she met the group she had been very depressed and even afterwards.

About 4 months after she met the group she had been thinking about suicide. Right before she was about to tell all of them goodbye and shut down her computer she got a message asking her if she was alright from Toxic. She had ended up telling him what she was going to do and how she felt so alone and unloved. He had talked her out of it and to this day told her goodnight and sweet dreams every night.

Muse smiled in the mirror at the memories and walked back to her computers. Angel, Monkey, and Toxic had messaged her. She had noticed long ago how almost never slept. While no one slept much in the group, Ares and Monkey slept the most at about 5 and a half hours and Muse only slept about 4 and a half, Toxic seemed to never sleep. The longest it had ever taken him to reply to a message of hers was 20 minutes.

She had asked Raven and Monkey if they knew how much he slept and they said they didn't really know, they only knew it was less than four hours a day. Monkey had said that one time Toxic had stayed up for 2 weeks straight. Before he had told her that she had thought it impossible to stay awake that long. She quickly figured that if anyone could do it, it was Toxic.

She started working on some projects and was thinking about other things. She started thinking about everyone's nicknames. You could figure out most of their's just by thinking about it. She had made hers because she was artistic and The Muses where the gods of music and art in Greek Mythology.

She opened the latest message from Toxic and started reading it. It said they would be having a voice chat later today. That was unusual.

* * *

**P.O.V. Angel**

Angel rolled over and squinted at his alarm clock, it said 5:50 A.M. His parents would be gone by the time he got out of the shower. He stood up and cut on his computers and grabbed some clothes before going to the bathroom and taking a shower.

Right before he got out he heard his mom knock on the door saying that his father and her were leaving. He sighed thankfully and got out of the shower putting on his shirt and brushing his teeth. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment.

He had silver hair that went to just above his shoulders, he had gotten three piercings in his left ear and currently had a snake going through all three, his eyes were blue, he always wore jeans, wore a jacket 90% of the time which was currently black with "Bite Me" in red letters on it, he had a normal black shirt with an angel lying down in the middle of the void, and grey Chucks. He was skinny like a pole and had almost no muscle on him which he didn't mind. He stood at about 5'10" and had pale skin.

He walked back to his computer and saw that he had a message from Muse and messaged her back before messaging everyone else seeing who was up while thinking about their names.

At first his name made no sense. He wasn't a religious person at all, he wasn't a very good person, and he wasn't overly nice. You had to know one saying before you could understand his name, "Even an Angel can become a Demon when provoked." After you knew that saying his name didn't seem so weird.

He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a drink while looking around the house thankful his parents where gone. They lived in a one story house that had a front and back porch with a basement. His room was passed the kitchen into the living room and into a hallway on the left while his parents was on the other side of the house on the right.

It wasn't that he didn't like his parents, there was nothing wrong with them, he just didn't get along with most people very well. That is one of the reasons he didn't have to go to regular school. Before he had met the group he didn't associate with anyone. He was grateful to Toxic for inviting him into the group. While his life hadn't been bad before hand, he realized how boring it was after he had joined.

He walked back to the computers and saw he had messages from Toxic, Muse, and Monkey. He messaged them back and glanced at the time, it was 6:20 now. He opened up some of his projects and put on his headphones. He started working on some things and forty minutes passed. He looked and saw he had some new messages.

He started reading it and was surprised by what it said.

"Interesting."

* * *

**P.O.V. Monkey**

Monkey was woken up by Toxic who shook him awake. He leaned up and looked around before looking at Toxic.

"What is it?"

"You told me to wake you up at 10, remember?"

"Oh yeah, thanks."

Toxic walked out saying no problem.

Monkey stretched before hoping out of bed and started doing some push-ups and sit-ups. He liked to stay in shape. He stood up now sweating slightly and grabbed some clothes and turned on his computers before walking out of the room to his bathroom and taking a shower. He got out and brushed his teeth before looking at himself in the mirror.

He was about 6 feet tall and was very skinny. He had some definition, but nothing to major. His hair was very short and he was wearing shorts like he always did. He also had on a green collar shirt and wore a pair of white Nike's. He had a very dark almost black complexion. His eyes were about the same color as well. While he couldn't really dye his hair he had pierced both of his ears, just having normal studs in at the moment. He walked out and went to the computers seeing he had a message from Muse he responded and messaged everyone else, save Toxic.

He smiled thinking about their names. His seemed like it would be a racist insult at first, but it wasn't. His favorite animal had always been monkeys and he liked to climb trees so the name Monkey just fit. It did make it awkward for the others though sometimes. He just thought it was funny.

He walked into the kitchen fixing a bowl of cereal and looking around. The house had a living room and then a kitchen just past it if you went to the left from the kitchen you would go to Toxic's and Raven's room and bathroom to the left was his.

He had known Toxic ever since they were seven and eight years old. They ha been living together for almost as long and had been living here for almost 3 years now. Why had three minors been living by themselves for nearly three years? That is a story for another time.

While the house wasn't overly big it was big enough for them. He finished his cereal and rinsed the bowl before placing it in the dish washer. He walked back to the room and saw he had messages from Angel and Muse. He messaged them back and then put on his headphones and started checking out some projects he had going on. He glanced down at the time. 10:30 P.M. is what it said. He stared working on some things he had to do.

After about thirty minutes he thought he heard something so he took his headphones off and listened.

"MONKEY!"

He instantly jumped up at the sound of Toxic's voice calling him.

* * *

**P.O.V. Raven**

Raven opened her eyes and rolled over looking at the clock. It said it was 10:30 P.M. She looked over at Toxic who was sitting at his computers. She hated how he didn't sleep much. It can't be good for him, but she knew it was pointless to try and argue with him. Unlike most guys who just agree with whatever their girlfriends wanted Toxic was not afraid to argue with her, and he was usually right.

She stood up quietly and tried to tiptoe over to him so she could scare him. Right before she got there he turned around and smiled at her.

She huffed and asked, "How do you always do that?"

He just wiggled his finger at her before standing up and kissing her softly and then sitting back down. She smiled knowing she could never be angry with him. She wrapped her arms around him and stared at the computer screens. She quickly got lost. While she was the only one who could even hope to keep up with him, she was no where as good when it came to using three computers at once. She just kissed him on the cheek and grabbed some clothes.

She turned on her computer before going to their bathroom and taking a shower. After she was finished she put her clothes on. After brushing her teeth she looked at herself in the mirror for a moment.

She had long, black hair with blood-red streaks going down it. Her eyes were bright green and she was about 5 and a half feet tall. She was fairly skinny and had d-cup breast. She was wearing a dark red shirt with black ravens all over it, black skinny jeans, and some black shoes she couldn't remember the name of the brand.

Before she had started dating Toxic three years ago she had been very self conscious about how she looked like most girls. He had quickly broken her out of that by saying he didn't care what anyone, even herself, had thought she looked like she looked gorgeous to him. She had tried to argue but he made clear he wouldn't hear it.

She smiled thinking about when had started calling her Raven. She had asked him why he called her that.

He said, "Because you will be the death of me you troublesome woman."

Before she could respond he finished, "But I guess there is no better way to die."

After that the name had just stuck. She liked it and had started using it.

Raven walked back into the room and sat down at her computers after kissing Toxic again. She noticed she had a message from Muse and messaged her back before messaging everyone seeing who was up, save Toxic. She glanced down at the time, it said 10:55 P.M.

She opened up some projects and before getting started she noticed that Toxic had stopped moving. She turned to him wondering what was wrong.

"What's wr-"

She was interrupted by Toxic.

"MONKEY!"

This can't be good.

* * *

**P.O.V. Toxic**

Toxic was working on some projects when he glanced down at the time, it was 9:30. He figured he'd take a shower and then wake Monkey up like he had asked him to earlier. He stood up and looked over at Raven as she slept which made him smile. He grabbed some clothes and went to his and Raven's bathroom. He got in the shower and just kind of stood there thinking about the past.

He remembered when he had first came up with the idea to start this group of his. He had gained a little group of people over the course of a few months. He knew each of their skills and abilities. He also knew that while Monkey, Raven, and himself were getting by it could be better. So he came up with the idea for all of them to start selling their services. Raven, Angel, Muse, and Monkey quickly agreed. Ares and Death agreed soon after.

At first it had been slow going, but after about 3 months they were decently known due to the 3 group tournaments they had done and the half dozen tournaments Ares and Death had done. Muse and himself created the website and after a month he got a personal request. He saw what it was how much they were willing to pay. He also asked if he would get extra for doing it in half the appointed time. The client had said yes and Toxic had gotten to work.

After only 5 hours he had crashed all of the servers of the biggest MMO at that time. That was their big break along with the second job he had gotten from the same client a week later.

Everyone had been ecstatic at the business they were getting. Monkey finally got to quit that awful job of his. It was great. They had only grown from their. Now you couldn't do anything on the internet without hearing about the Seven Deadly Sins.

But he was always ready for the worse. He had lived his whole life where every time something good happened it was taken away or destroyed. That is why his name was Toxic. Everything he touched died. The only true constant in his life for the longest time was Monkey so he was always ready.

He sighed and got out of the shower putting on his clothes. He brushed his teeth and looked in the mirror.

He was the same height as Monkey 6 foot tall. He was muscular but all of his muscles were tight and he had less than 0.5% body fat. He had dark blue hair with black streaks going through it that went to his shoulders all around and in the front was swept to the side. He was wearing black jeans, a black shirt with a green radioactive symbol and he had a tongue ring which was just a normal barbel, a dark blue jacket with silver tracing along the zipper, hood, and arms. He also wore some black combat boots. He had each ear pierced 6 times all with radioactive symbols.

He walked back into the room and glanced at the time, it was 9:50. He went into the kitchen and heated up some chicken from earlier and got a drink out of the fridge. He looked around the room.

While he could probably have better, he wouldn't have it any other way. Everything in his life was pretty good. He finished his food and drink before going to wake Monkey up.

He walked in and shook him awake and waited for him to lean up.

"What?"

"You asked me to get you up at 10, remember."

"Oh yeah, thanks."

He walked out saying no problem. He walked back to his room and looked over at Raven again. She looked beautiful with the moonlight shining on her face. He walked over and kissed her on the forehead before sitting back down at the desk. He pulled his hood on before placing his headphones on top. After about 15 minutes he got a message from Muse asking if he was awake. He messaged her back and asked who was awake, save Raven and Monkey.

After another 15 minutes he heard Raven walking up behind him and looked at her smiling. After she asked how he always does that he just wiggled his finger at her before standing up to kiss her. He sat back down and soon after she wrapped her arms around him and looked at the three screens. He was currently doing three different projects and he knew she wouldn't be able to keep track of all three. She kissed him on the cheek before unwrapping her arms.

He smiled and heard the door close signifying her leaving the room. Man, he loved that girl.

She came back in about 20 minutes later. He gave her a kiss before she sat down at her own computers. He continued working for a few minutes before checking the personal request he had gotten. He only had one new one.

He opened it and started reading it. It took about five minutes to finish and once he was done he just stopped moving. This was just to crazy.

Apparently Raven had noticed and said something he didn't hear.

He yelled really loud, "Monkey!"

* * *

**P.O.V. Death**

Death opened his eyes and rolled out of bed waking himself up quicker. He looked over at the clock, 9:00 A.M. He decided he'd take a shower and then wake Ares up. Yes, what no one in the group, except for Angel who lived close to them, knew was that Ares and Death were step brothers. His mom had gotten with Ares' dad years ago, not a big deal. They were more like close friends than brothers.

He stood up and turned on his computers before grabbing some clothes and going to the shower Ares and him shared. After taking the shower he put on his clothes and brushed his teeth. After finishing he stared at himself in the mirror.

He was about 5'9" and while he wasn't fat by any means he was bigger than his brother. He didn't mind he was happy with his weight. He had completely black hair that went to just below his ears and had snake bites. His eyes were hazel and he wore a white shirt with a black-robed figure holding a scythe. He also had a jacket which was just plain black and he had black jeans on. His shoes were black Chucks just like Angel's.

He looked closely at his shirt thinking about his nickname. He was always the dark one in the family. At first he had though about using Hades, but Death just had a menacing tone to it.

He walked back to his room and saw he had messages from everyone, except his brother. He looked at all of them. He looked at Toxic's and was shocked at what it said. They would be having a voice chat in about 30 minutes. He responded before getting up quickly thinking about what Toxic had done for him.

Before he had become part of the group he had always second best to his step brother, which he didn't mind really and his brother was cool about it, but it got annoying after a while. So when he was asked if he had anyone who could be in the group he asked his brother. Ever since then they had become much closer and did a lot of things together. He was thankful for Toxic.

He walked into Ares room and kicked the bed waking him up quickly.

"Get up. We've got a voice chat in thirty minutes."

He looked at him wide-eyed, "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously."

He nodded and Death walked out of the room sitting down working on some project waiting for the voice chat.

* * *

**P.O.V. Ares**

Ares was woken up by someone kicking his bed.

He heard Death's voice, "Get up. We've got a voice chat in 30 minutes."

He quickly sat up, "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously."

He nodded and Death walked out of the room. This was crazy, they hadn't had a voice chat in over three months. It must be pretty important if Toxic's calling for one of those. He got out of bed turning his computer on and grabbing some clothes before going to the shower.

After finished taking a shower he put on his clothes. He brushed his teeth and once done looked at himself in the mirror.

He was 5'8" and muscular. He was probably one of the most muscular in the group. He was the athlete of the group. He had fairly short, almost white hair with red streaks in it that reached just above his ears. He had one piercing in each ear and one in his nose all of them just normal studs and he had green eyes. He had on normal jeans and a black shirt with flames on it. He also had on some black Vans that helped with skateboarding.

The reason behind his name was simple. He was very vicious when in-game. He was also one of the best so he had gotten the title as the God of War. It wasn't a complicated name, but it did fit him.

He walked back to his room and responded to all his messages and glanced at the time, it was 9:50 P.M. He stood up and went to the kitchen. He heated up some biscuits and got a drink while looking around the house.

His house was very similar to Angel's except if you went into the hallway for his room and turned left instead of right you'd be at Death's room. His dad and Death's mom had started dating about 7 years ago and got married about 5 years ago.

He was happy when they joined Toxic's group. His brother seemed a lot happier afterwards and they became closer. They also got meet Angel who wasn't to far away from them. He wasn't sure why Toxic would call for a voice chat, but it must be important.

He headed back to his room thinking about the voice chat.

The voice chat was something that Toxic had got to work. It was kind of like the Web of Trust except you could trace where the messages came from with out even unlocking the ability to listen to them so Toxic didn't like to use it unless it was important. While everyone trusted Toxic's decisions he could be very paranoid at times. Ares had just stopped asking why though. Every time he used to Toxic would explain why and it would make perfect sense so he just stopped questioning it.

He sat down at his computer and put on his computer and put on his headphones. He was glad his parents weren't home. Two other problems with the voice chat were that you had to talk out loud so if someone was home they might think you were crazy and everyone had to be awake at the same time which could sometimes be difficult.

Once it hit 10:00 A.M. he started sending the stream of info to everyone. Until this ended anyone who found the stream could trace it even if they couldn't listen to it.

* * *

**P.O.V. Toxic**

Toxic had waited for everyone's stream to come in and connected at the same time. Everyone was talking and he asked them to be quiet they stopped talking immediately.

He sighed before speaking, "Raven and Monkey are next to me. If you haven't figured it out we all live together. I am going to send you each a message I want you to read it and when you are finished just send me a message don't speak. Got it?"

They all said yes and he sent them the messages. After about 5 minutes he got messages from all of them.

"What you just read is someone very powerful wants us to work for him doing various things for various powerful people. If what he says is true we will be payed lots of money if we do this. He says he will be willing to provide alibis for you so your parents don't ask any questions. I am going to ask each of you how you feel about this. Tell me how you truthfully feel no matter what anyone else says. First Angel you go."

It was silent for a few moments before he spoke, "I think this could be a great opportunity for us as long as we have a back up plan in case he tries something on us."

"Good. As you know I always have a back up plan and if anything happens to us this will work. Now your turn Muse."

It was almost a full minute before she spoke, "I agree with Angel, but I want to know the details of these alibis before we go."

"I have already requested information on the subject. Your turn Death."

"Before we go I want to know the exact location we will be going to before we do it. Also I would like to know the details of our job."

"So as long as get this information you will all be willing to go?"

They all said yes, "Then I know what I need. I am glad to hear this."

Death decided to speak up, "You didn't ask Ares for his input."

"Because he doesn't care about the details, he just cares about the adventure. Am I right Ares?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Before Toxic could respond Muse spoke, "Toxic, do you think you could be there to pick me up?"

Angel asked the same as well. Toxic thought about it for a moment.

"I don't think our client will mind that. I'll go ahead and ask to be there to get Ares and Death as well. Anything else?"

Ares spoke up this time, "Yes, what will our pay be?"

"I asked the same question as soon as I got the message. I got a response just a few hours ago. He said 50,000$ plus expenses."

Everyone was shocked, even Raven and Monkey who hadn't heard that yet. Death was the first to speak up.

"Wow, 50,000$ a year. That's insane."

Toxic actually started laughing at this. This confused everyone.

Raven decided to ask, "What is so funny?"

Toxic quickly responded, "It isn't 50,000$ a year. It's 50,000$ a month."

Everyone gasped at this and Ares fell out of his chair. Angel quickly responded.

"Why didn't you tell us that at first?"

"Would you have even thought about the situation if I had?"

Angel understood his point and didn't say anything.

"Now do any of you have questions?"

Nobody responded so figured not.

"Good. Finish up any projects you have. Muse I want the site purchasing features down and a notice up in thirty minutes. We will do this again in three days when I have all the details. Understood?"

They all said yes and then closed their streams down.

As soon as the streams were down Toxic slammed his head on the table.

"This is such a fucking headache."

Raven rubbed his back and Monkey just laughed.

"Monkey, do you think you can finish all of your jobs?"

Monkey thought about it for a moment, "Yeah, I should be able to."

"Good. Raven, ask Muse if she needs help with any jobs of hers."

She nodded and walked over to her computer.

"Monkey, do you remember how much Facebook is willing to pay you if you can hack their website?"

Monkey tried remembering, "I believe it was 1,000$ an hour."

"Good."

With that he started typing away at his three computers.

"What are you planning?"

"I just think Facebook needs to take a break for a couple of days is all."

Monkey didn't say anything he just nodded his head and walked out of the room. After about thirty minutes of typing Toxic leaned back and stretched his arms out.

"There that should keep it crashed for a few hours."

Raven just shook her head at how calm he seemed about doing that. He pressed a few more buttons before standing up. He looked at the time. It was 4:12 A.M.

"Hey Raven, wake me up at 7 okay?"

She nodded and he kissed her before laying down on the bed thinking about everything that had happened.

* * *

**P.O.V. Angel**

Angel closed the stream down and leaned back in his chair sighing. This was insane. Just two years ago he would have trouble with even talking to people. Now he was famous on the internet and being offered a high paying job.

While he was worried about the details of this job he trusted Toxic completely. Toxic always lead them correctly and this was no different. He was like the indirect father of the group. If anyone needed advice on anything he would help as much as possible.

Anyways, he needed to hurry up and finish any jobs of his. First he messaged Death to see if he or Ares needed help with any leveling jobs. While waiting for a response he opened up some of his programs to start editing saves and hacking games. Once Death said they shouldn't but they would message him if they needed it he started working on his jobs while thinking about their strange group.

All of them had their quirks, but that was one of the reasons that fit so well together. He was socially anxious and as awkward as they come, Muse had very low self-esteem, Ares never fit in anywhere because of how diverse he was, and Death hated being second. Each one of them were helped by Toxic.

Toxic accepted them for how they were and didn't judge their faults. He didn't know the story behind Raven, Toxic, and Monkey, but he figured it was very complex like everything else that involved Toxic.

Anyways he needed to finish these assignments as soon as possible. He looked down at the time, it was 12:30 P.M.

"I wonder if Monkey needs any help with his jobs?"

* * *

**P.O.V. Ares & Death**

Death closed the stream he and his brother were using in his room. They both looked at each other for a minute before laughing like crazy. After about 4 minutes Ares spoke.

"This is crazy. Who would have though when you asked me to join this group that we'd end up doing this?"

"I definitely didn't. I just thought it'd be a cool thing to do in our free time. I never once thought it would turn into what it has."

"Yeah who would've thought one guy on the internet would bring together our broken family of psychos and make us famous. We need to tell Toxic thanks when we finally meet in real life."

Neither one said anything. They didn't need to. They both knew Toxic had helped both of them with their problems. Before this group Ares had never been accepted into any groups. He was an athletic, punk, who skated, and played on the computer a lot. He didn't exactly fit into most groups. But when he joined this group Toxic had made it clear he didn't care that Ares had an odd assortment of characteristics. He had accepted him with open arms, metaphorically of course.

Death had always felt like second best before he joined the group. He always felt like he would only be second best. It had taken Toxic all of five minutes to show him that even if he was second best he was still better than all the others below him and he had an assortment of skills no one else had.

Death checked a message he got from Angel. He read it quickly before telling Ares.

"Angel wants to know if we need any help with leveling jobs. I know I don't, do you?"

"I don't think so. If we do tell him we'll message him."

Death nodded and sent the message and leaned back in the chair. Ares smiled at him in anticipation before speaking.

"Are we pulling an all nighter?"

"You know it."

They bumped fist before Ares went back to his room.

* * *

**P.O.V. Muse**

Muse closed her stream down and stood up out of her seat to go and get something to drink. She was still processing all of this information. She never expected any of this when she accepted Toxic's invitation to the group.

She had been playing a normal MMORPG and was playing with a random group of people. She was doing fairly well, but what was weird was that there was team of only 6 people who were destroying groups nearly triple their size. Her group decided to test out this small group. She noticed that about half way through the fight the leader of the group had went to the back of the group.

About 5 minutes later she heard a voice that wasn't on her team. He quickly told her he was the leader of the other team and wanted to talk to her about joining their group. At first she had thought about saying no, but she realized that if this guy could break into the game a get access to her character that maybe she should hear him out.

After the rest of her team had been destroyed she started talking to the leader. He said he had noticed how she was wearing a very interesting customized skin. He asked her if she had made it. Once he found she had he started asking her to be the art designer for their group. At first she thought this was odd, but after he had explained that no one else in their group was very good with art design.

It didn't take her long to accept. She soon found out they actually spanned across many games. After a month he had asked her to design a webpage for their group, that he decided to call the Seven Deadly Sins. She had said she would and from their everything had taken off. He had helped her with her self-esteem and gave her a place in their odd group.

She looked around her apartment. She lived in a large apartment with her parents. It was similar to most hotel rooms. There was a kitchen to the right of the door and then the Apartment was right past that. From their you could go left to her parents room or right to hers. Each one was connected to a personal bathroom.

Her parents worked quite a lot and tended to ignore her unless it had something to do with her art and/or music. She knew that they didn't do it on purpose, but it still made her feel unwanted until she had that talk with Toxic.

She walked back to her room and started working on some projects thinking about how they would be working for someone soon, most likely. The only thing she was worried about was the alibi, but she knew that as soon as Toxic had gotten the message from the client he would've started thinking of possible alibis for everyone. She knew that as long as he was their leader they'd be okay.

She had a message from Raven asking her if she needed help with and jobs. She told her she didn't at the moment and if she did she'd message her. She needed to get the site down quickly and then finish her jobs. Thankfully none of them were that hard, for her anyways.

* * *

**P.O.V. Toxic**

Toxic was awakened by Raven trying to climb on the bed and scare him awake. He sat up and wiggled his finger making her pout, but he kissed her before she could say anything. She smiled and climbed off and he stood up stretching.

He walked over to the computer and started working on a program to keep Facebook down for a few more hours. After making sure it would stay down for at least 4 hours he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He came back and put his shoes on.

"Hey Raven, I got to leave for a little bit. If I'm not back in four hours can you hit the start program button the screen?"

She nodded and he kissed her on the cheek before grabbing his phone and keys. Before walking out the room he asked a question.

"Do you need anything while I'm out?"

She placed her hand on her chin and thought about it.

"Hmm, you should get some suitcases while you're out."

He nodded and walked over to Monkey's room. Monkey looked over at him.

"I'm going out do you need anything?"

"Yeah, grab some food on the way back."

Toxic said okay and walked out to the car. While it wasn't very new, it was a very nice car. Jerald had gotten this black 2000 Ford Mustang two years ago and had been customizing it ever since.

Toxic got in and started driving to the mall. Since they lived just outside of a big city the mall opened at 9:00 A.M. and it was currently 8:30 A.M. He would be there about the time it opened.

Once he got to the mall he quickly went inside after pulling his hood up, he didn't like to talk to people unless necessary. He headed towards one of his favorite stores, Spencer's. He walked up to the cashier, who couldn't be to much older than him. She smiled at him and spoke in a very happy voice.

"How may I help you?"

"I need seven studded chokers , identical except for different colors and different tag designs."

_**Who is this client that wants the group? What will everybody's alibis be? And why is Toxic getting seven chokers made? Find out all of these and more next time on Seven Deadly Sins.**_

* * *

**A/N Well, that's a wrap. So, I'm pretty much making this up as I go. I only had the vaguest of ideas for this story and it quickly became this. Whether it's good or bad it up to you. If you like it great, if not tell me why.**

**Anyways until next time,**

**Toxic Out.**


	2. The Gathering

**A/N Hello everyone this is Toxic here with the second chapter of "Seven Deadly Sins". I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter because I really like this story.**

**Anyways on to the second chapter of "Seven Deadly Sins"**

* * *

**Last Time**

Toxic had walked into the mall and headed to one of his favorite stores, Spencer's. He then ordered seven chokers from the girl.

"That is odd, but anyways, what tags on them and what words on the sides?"

She asked in a very sweet voice, Toxic was pretty sure she was trying to flirt with him.

"Do you have a pen and a piece of paper so I can write them down?"

She smiled, "Yes, hold on."

She turned around and leaned over showing off her ass to him not affecting him in any way. She turned back around and handed him what he asked for.

He started writing down the details and noticed how she was leaning over showing off her breast to him. He just continued writing before handing the paper to her.

She looked at the paper and scrunched her face up in confusion before going back to smiling and looking at him.

"When should they be finished and how much will they cost?"

She thought about if for a second, "About two hours and probably one hundred and fifty dollars. Is that okay?"

"That will be fine, I'll be back at 11:30 to pick them up."

She smiled and nodded before he walked out and went to go pick up some suitcases for them.

After picking up two suitcases for each of them and putting them in the car it was almost 10:30. He walked back in the mall and decided to go to the game store and look around.

Once he got there he noticed quite a few people around a TV screen with two people versin in a fighting game. He thought nothing of it, most likely just some teens playing games.

After looking around for about 10 minutes he heard someone calling him from over at the TV.

"Hey, emo faggot, nobody wants you around here. You are probably awful at games anyways and don't know anything about electronics, fucking queer."

Toxic just raised an eyebrow before going back to looking. The other people around the loud mouth started whispering about the guy ignoring him. The loudmouth was getting angry and walked over to Toxic placing his hand on his shoulder and almost yelling in his ear.

"Hey, fag did you fucking hear me? Are you fucking stupid or something?"

Toxic looked over and just moved the loudmouth's hand.

"Can I do something for you?"

The loudmouth was starting to get red in the face.

"You fucking quire you are starting to make me fucking mad you little bitch, now get the fuck out of here before I get really mad!"

Toxic was annoyed by the guy's loud voice. Looking at the TV Toxic got an idea.

"How about we verse, I win you give the people you played money back, if you win I give you a hundred bucks. Deal?"

The guy started laughing, "Sure, but you're about to be a hundred bucks poorer queer."

Toxic just walked over to the game and looked at it as his opponent chose his character. Toxic had seen this game before and knew their were countering abilities for people. So knowing the loudmouth Toxic chose who he figured would appear the weakest. His opponent laughed and started saying something about how this would be to easy.

Toxic just kept calm and when the match started dodge his opponents attacks. The loudmouth was slowly getting very frustrated, all according to his plan. Toxic slowly lead his opponent to the side of the arena and countered the attack flipping his opponent over and off the stage winning the match.

The loudmouth was standing there with his mouth open and Toxic grabbed the money and gave it to the people who had lost money from the guy. Toxic just turned and walked out of the store going to get the his items.

He walked into Spencer's and the girl smiled at him.

"Hey, your order just finished a few minutes ago."

She reached under the counter and picked up a bag placing it on top of the counter. Toxic took some money out of his wallet and handed it to her before grabbing the bag and getting his change, with that he walked out to the car.

He headed to the house grabbing some burgers on the way. He pulled up and Monkey came outside helping him get the suitcases.

"Hey Monkey, how do you feel about all of this going on?"

Monkey ran his hand over his head, "Man I just don't know, but I've been with you for a long time so I'll trust your decisions."

"Thanks."

Toxic and him fist bumped before going to their specific rooms. He kissed Raven before handing some food to her and then sitting at the desk he had about ten minutes before he needed to update the hacking process. He layed the chokers on the table looking at each one carefully. Each one had a number 1-7 on them. Number 7 was white and had a music note as the tag. Number 6 was storm grey and had an angel for the tag. Number 5 was blood-red and had a sword as the tag. Number 4 was black and had a scythe as the tag. Number 3 was green and had a monkey as the tag. Number 2 was purple and had a raven as the tag. Lastly, number 1 had a toxic symbol as the tag and was midnight blue.

He picked each one up and slowly slid a tiny little chip inside of each one so they were completely unnoticeable.

After finishing put the his on, number one and picked up 2 and 3. He walked over to Raven's chair so she couldn't see him and slowly slid her's on. She looked at him and smiled, he leaned down and kissed her before walking to Monkey's room. He knocked and Monkey said to come in.

He walked in and handed Monkey his who just looked at him and nodded before putting it on.

Toxic patted him on the shoulder before walking out of the room while thinking.

_"I need to ask the others some questions."_

* * *

**Angel P.O.V.**

Angel was finishing up some projects and thinking about when he first met Toxic.

He had been hacking and modding game saves for people on the internet and had started to get pretty good at it. He was playing an MMO one day when he heard someone come over his voice chat.

"Hello, I have been hearing some interesting things about you, Angel."

Angel freaked out for a second before calming down. After talking to the guy he started to learn more about him and his idea for this group. Angel was starting to like the idea and really liked the idea of having actual friends.

He soon found out the guy's name was Toxic. He really liked Toxic because he didn't judge him and didn't mind his quirks.

Angel noticed he had a message from Toxic. He read the message and leaned back in his chair.

"I wonder why he wants to know my parents email?"

* * *

**P.O.V. Death**

Death leaned back in his chair. Ares and him had just finished one of the last leveling jobs they had. This was the game he had been playing when he had first met Toxic.

He was playing as a warrior character and was cutting down mobs right and left. He looked over and saw someone playing as a monk, but they were only wearing pants and had two kunais. He was just standing there. Death thought he was AFK until mobs got near him and he started countering them and cutting them up, he almost never had to move, he just let them kill themselves.

It was beautiful in a way. After a few minutes all of the mobs in the area were dead and he still hadn't moved from that spot. Death was watching him when the character looked at his and he heard a voice over his chat.

"Hello Death, how are you?"

Death was surprised, but kept his calm. He started talking to the guy. He soon found out his name and what he wanted. Death thought it was a pretty cool idea and was quick to join. When Toxic asked if there was someone he knew that could join he thought of his brother. Ares accepted to thinking it would be interesting if nothing else.

Death had a message from Toxic. He quickly read it before replying.

"That is interesting."

* * *

**P.O.V. Muse**

Muse was finishing up some last minute projects while thinking about the past.

She had gone to school up until 7th grade, after that she started taking online classes. Her parents had agreed because they thought school would hold back her artistic abilities. She preferred it this way. She had been thinking about going back before she met Toxic and the group, but decided against it soon afterwards.

She knew the situation with Angel was similar except for his was because of his social issues. She wasn't very sure of how Ares and Death convinced their parents and she had no idea what Toxic, Monkey, and Raven's situations were.

The only two who ever left their homes were Ares and Monkey, which wasn't a problem since they both had someone who could contact them quickly, Death and Toxic respectively.

They all had certain roles when playing a game. She and Angel was usually a Ranger and supported the others, Death and Ares were their front line Fighters and Tanks, Monkey was an Assassin type who would sneak around the battlefield, Raven was a support Mage/Medic who would heal the others, and Toxic was the offensive Mage/General who would lead them and cast massive spells.

It was a good strategy and each role fit their personalities well. They each had something they were good at. She could figure out puzzles and see patterns, Ares was very good at playing a game in many different ways, Death was very good at keeping his cool even when surrounded, Monkey could sneak around anyone and anyplace without being seen, Raven could keep track of everyone's status and health, and Toxic could learn the mechanics and AI of any game easily.

So, they were a very formidable group.

Muse looked at the screen, while she was lost in her thoughts she had gotten a message from Toxic. She quickly read it and replied. Not bothering to question Toxic on the weird question.

* * *

**Three Days Later**

Toxic was sitting at his computer preparing for the chat with his group. He had Raven and Monkey standing behind him watching him.

After about five minutes he was finished and everyone started popping up on the screen. First Muse, then Angel, and finally Ares and Death.

"Hello everyone."

They all said hello back, but nothing else.

"I have discovered the name of our employer through various means."

Everyone knew what he meant. He had traced the messages back far enough to find out who he was talking to.

"And you are not going to believe who he is. Our employer is none other than the C.E.O. of Kaizer Corps."

It took a total of five seconds before everyone except for Muse and Toxic yelled, "What?"

"Yes, since it appears Muse doesn't know who we are talking about I will explain who he is."

"Kaizer Corps. is a major electronics company that quickly took over most of the electronics business in North America, Australia, and Europe in the last 5 years. They currently own about 75% of electronics going in and out of these countries. They are equivalent to Razor Inc. in Asia, Africa, and South America who you are more familiar with Muse."

She nodded in understanding and he continued.

"As you are all aware Kaizer and Razor got together along with several other companies about 10 years ago to create the Web of Thoughts a virtual reality program that connects all users onto one mainframe and has nearly all major games, and a virtual world in it. It "hit shelves" a little over two years ago. At first it cost nearly $50,000, but its price is dropping rapidly because of its success. Now it cost about 10-15k depending on where you get it."

They all nodded in understanding, anyone on the internet knew at least something about the Web as it is known.

"I had been planning on ordering one to try it out to see if it was worth spending the money on getting one for everyone."

They all knew about this he had mentioned it a month or so before.

"Now this is merely speculation, but I think I know why Kaizer is hiring us. When I found out who it was I started researching them and found out some interesting things. It seems that Kaizer and Razor had a falling out about a year ago and have been competing for dominance inside of the Web."

Everyone's eyes widened slightly, that was shocking to say the least, virtual warfare on a whole new level. Angel decided to ask the question everyone was wondering.

"How did you find this out, Toxic?"

Toxic grinned and leaned back in his chair, "I hacked into it of course."

No one said anything, that was supposed to be impossible, people had been trying that ever since it had came out. Toxic decided to respond to the unasked question.

"People have been going about it wrong. While others had been trying to place virtual bodies of code in the game, which triggered fire walls, I placed several tiny insignificant bits of code all around the firewalls which slowly got through none the wiser. When they got inside they sought each other out and formed into a virtual body to observe. Though I only had thirty minutes before the firewalls started noticing new entities in the system, it was still enough time to question a few people and then break the code up scattering it to the wind."

They all just looked at him, it was genius.

"Now I know that they most likely want us to go in there and slowly gain control of it. They discovered that Razor has been hiring young computer experts like us to help them, as well as some of the other minor companies. Once they knew this they decided that if they were going to have any chance of catching up to the massive lead their competitors had they would need the best so they contacted us. Now this is mostly speculation, but I'm very certain it is true."

They all nodded in agreement, it did make sense if what Toxic had learned was true.

"Now I am sure you were all wondering why I asked for your parents e-mail addresses a few days ago. Your parents should be receiving an e-mail saying you have been invited to some school in or around the New York area tonight. It will also say that if they accept a representative from the school will be there to pick you up. Traveling and expenses will be payed for and they won't have any plans. If everything goes as I think it will then I will be there to pick Muse up in 4 days and Death, Ares, and Angel in 5 days."

No one said anything. Meeting Toxic after so long would be ... interesting to say the least. And then Death realized something.

"Wait, so are parents are going to meet you?"

Toxic just nodded. Now everyone was really starting to think. Toxic wasn't a friendly individual and tended to be very cold. Raven decided to say something.

"Why don't I go in and talk to the parents?"

Toxic looked at her for a second before closing his eyes and thinking. After a minute or so he opened his eyes.

"No, I want to meet their parents. I have some things to say to them."

They all thought about it for a moment before dropping the subject. They would trust his decisions even if they were a bit apprehensive. Ares who had been fairly silent up until now decided to ask a question no one else bothered with.

"What should we pack?"

Angel, Death, and Muse almost hit themselves for not already asking about this.

"Since we are going to New York you should pack 5 sets of clothes so 5 pairs of pants, 5 short sleeve shirts, 5 long-sleeve shirts, 5 pairs of normal socks, and some thicker socks, 2 or 3 pairs of shoes, 2 normal jackets, and a thicker jacket. Also, I want you to get a hard drive and get anything off your computers you think you'll need. After that make your computer seem normal, but not to normal or else your parents might suspect something. Pack anything else you really want to take, but if it is just something you like, but can get another we will just get once we get there."

"Oh, and Muse how is the weather where you are around this time?"

Muse was a little put off by the question, but answered anyways.

"Considering it is the middle of November it is a little chilly, but nothing to bad."

"Good, I was just making sure is all. Didn't want to get there and it be to hot or to cold. Does anyone have anymore questions before we sign off?"

After a few moments of thinking they all said no.

"Ok, I will see you all in a few days then. Until then, bye."

With that they all signed out.

* * *

**3 Days Later Toxic's POV**

Toxic picked up Raven's and his suitcases and took them into the living room, placing them beside the door. He saw Monkey's case sitting next to his. He was about to walk back to the room when there was a knock at the door.

He opened the door to see a man in a suit with a military style haircut.

"I'm guessing you're with Kaizer Corps. Right?"

The man just nodded, not saying anything.

"I see. You can go to your car, we will be out soon. "

The man just turned around and walked back to the car, a new BMW.

After 15 minutes Toxic, Raven, and Monkey walked out with their bags. They placed them in the back of the car and Raven and Monkey got it in.

"Hey Monkey do you have a lighter you won't be needing back?"

Monkey handed him a normal Zippo lighter. Toxic walked up to the front door.

"Everyone got everything they need?"

He didn't hear anything so he flicked the lighter open and looked at the flame for a moment before tossing the lighter inside the house and walking away.

The driver of the car looked surprised but didn't say anything. With that they drove off from their old lives and into the new ones.

* * *

**The Next Day - Outside of Muse's - 3:00 P.M.**

Toxic stepped out of the vehicle and looked around.

Muse lived in a giant apartment complex, not unlike most of Tokyo. She lived on the 30th floor, room 30126.

He walked inside and went towards the elevator, the people at the were surprised slightly to see an American at an apartment complex, but didn't stop him as he headed towards the elevator.

As he ascended the floors he wondered what would happen in the virtual reality world. From what he had seen the entire place was a gigantic city for the main structure and then several other cities were spread out along the world. You could enter several different games from within the city and the biggest were the MMORPG's.

He could assume that it had something to do with the more famous games, but with how unfamiliar he was with this territory, he could never be sure. The tech had only been out for less than two years and had only been getting serious attention for about ten months.

With that he reached the 30th floor. He finally came to the door and knocked. After a few minutes a small woman of about five feet tall opened the door. He could see a slight hint of fear in her eyes.

"Hello, and who are you?" she asked him.

It was nice that Muse and her parents all knew English since they worked in large businesses.

"I am from the Art Institute in New York. I am here to pick your daughter up and escort her their," he responded.

Her eyes widened slowly and she opened the door widely.

"Oh I am sorry, come in please."

Toxic stepped through the door and looked around. It was a fairly standard apartment with a medium sized kitchen to the right of when you walk in and then the living room with two splitting off hallways.

They walked into the living room and saw Muse's father sitting on the couch.

He was an average man of about 5'9" and had short black hair and glasses. He was on the skinnier side and by the way he sat you could tell he was a business man.

He stood up and walked over.

"And you are?" he asked.

"I am from the Art Institute in New York. I am here to pick up your daughter and escort her there."

Toxic handed him a folder with papers showing who he was. He took it and quickly scanned through it before nodding in approval.

"I see. I have three questions for you."

"Ask away."

"Firstly what should we call you?"

Toxic thought about it for a second before answering.

"Most people tend to call me Toxic."

If the man was surprised by the name he didn't show it.

"Okay. Second, why do you dress and present yourself like you do?"

Toxic did not even have to think about that one.

"To distinguish myself from the moronic population and as an intimidation factor."

"Interesting. Lastly, do you plan on protecting my daughter?"

"If anyone is dumb enough to try anything it will result very poorly."

He seemed satisfied with the answers and handed Toxic the folder.

"Good. Sweety the representative from the Institute is here to pick you up."

"I'll be right there," she responded from her room.

After a few minutes Muse walked out of the room.

* * *

**With Muse - 5 Minutes Before**

Muse had just finished packing everything and zipped up her bag when she heard her father.

"Sweety the representative from the Institute is here to pick you up."

Muse froze up for a moment. She was finally going to meet Toxic.

She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and dark jeans. She pulled the suitcase off the bed and slowly rolled it over to the door, slightly apprehensive of meeting Toxic.

After nearly a minute of just standing their she finally opened the door. She slowly walked into the living room immediately looking at Toxic.

He was more intimidating than she had imagined. Standing at six feet tall and having long dark blue hair with black streaks, add that to the six piercings in each ear and the one she thought she saw in his tongue, he was definitely a fearsome sight.

He walked up to her and gently smirked, holding his hand out.

"Hello, you can call me Toxic."

She gently took his hand.

"Nice to meet you Toxic."

He grinned and brought his hand back.

"Do you have everything you need?"

She nodded and he grabbed the handle of the suitcase to pull it with them.

"Good. Well if that is all, we should be going."

She just walked up to her parents and hugged them before following him out the door. Once they were in the elevator Muse suddenly hugged Toxic surprising him. Once she finally released she was crying softly.

"It is so nice to meet you Toxic."

He just smiled and placed a hand on her head before pulling out her choker.

Muse looked at the choker for a moment before putting it on and hugging Toxic in thanks. Once they got to the limo they were currently riding in Toxic placed her suitcase in the back.

Muse hugged Raven and Monkey before Raven and her started talking a lot while Toxic just rested his head against the seat.

* * *

**The Following Day - Ares' and Death's House**

Toxic stood at the door of Ares' and Death's house and knocked. A short, barely five foot, woman with brown hair answered the door.

"Hello and who are you?" she asked him.

"I am from the institute here to escort your sons their."

She quickly opened the door and invited him inside.

"Please come in."

He walked inside and looked around the nice house before walking into the living room. There was a man who was about five foot nine inches and had short red hair. He stood up and walked over to Toxic.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am from the Institute to escort your sons their."

The man held his hand out.

"Nice to meet you Mr.?"

Toxic shook it.

"People tend to call me Toxic."

"Interesting name you have. Boys! Someone from the Institute is here for you."

They both quickly walked out of their rooms.

Death and Ares were both surprised by Toxic's appearance and the feeling was mutual for Toxic, but it didn't bother them. Toxic walked up to both of them and shook hands.

"Nice to meet both of you, my name is Toxic."

They both looked at him and smiled.

"Nice to meet you," they both responded.

"Are both of you ready?"

They both nodded.

"Well then we should be going."

They both nodded in acceptance and after they both hugged their parents they walked outside. Once they were at the car Toxic handed them both their chokers. Death's being the black one and Ares' being the red.

"Put these on."

Ares immediately did and Death only thought about it for a second before putting it on.

"Well now we head off to pick up Angel."

They both nodded and got in the car hugging both Raven and Muse and shaking hands with Monkey.

* * *

**45 Minutes Later - Angel's House**

Angel's house was almost identical to Ares' and Death's. Toxic knocked on the door and a five foot four inch woman with blond hair answered the door.

**A/N You know the deal. Skipping to Toxic putting bag in the trunk.**

Once Toxic closed the trunk Angel hugged him.

"Thank you so much Toxic, for everything."

Toxic just placed a hand on his head.

"Don't worry about it, here take this."

Toxic handed him the white choker.

Angel quickly put it on and smiled before getting in the car and hugging everyone.

Toxic followed and rested his head against the seat.

"Wake me when we arrive at the airport," he told Raven.

She just nodded and he closed his eyes.

* * *

**The Following Day - New York City, Kaizer Corps**

Toxic and Monkey pulled all of the bags out of the trunk and onto the sidewalk so the limo could pull away.

"Okay guys, we are finally here. Everyone stay on high alert at first we have no idea what to expect when we walk in there. If anything looks odd you tell me. If you feel uncomfortable you tell me. Don't feel afraid to ask any questions or to suggest anything. We can all get to know each other closely as time passes. Always remember that we look out for each other and protect each other, no matter what. " he told everyone.

They all nodded.

"Everyone ready for our new lives to begin."

They again all nodded and he raked a hand through his hair before finally walking into the building.

"Hello Seven Deadly Sins and welcome to Kaizer Corporations."

* * *

**A/N Well how was it? I thought it was pretty good. The gang is all together now and they are finally going to really start their journey.**

**You are probably wondering what I am going to do, right?**

**Well so am I. I have some details of the story worked out, but most of the time I have no idea what I am going to type until I sit down at my computer. I prefer to have it that way, even if it makes it difficult at times.**

**If anyone has any suggestions or comments feel free to share. Don't expect updates as quickly as this one was. This one was was three furths done when I posted the first chapter. **

**Until next time,**

**ToxicMeltdown Out.**


	3. Beginnings

**A/N In this chapter I will finally start implementing ideas from other sources. I will change them up some of course, but there will be a heavy influence.**

**I have some interesting ideas, even if they are not fully formed as of yet. This story will mainly follow Toxic, but will sometimes switch to other characters for various reasons.**

**With all of that out of the way, onto the third chapter, Beginnings.**

* * *

**Last Time**

Toxic and the gang were outside of Kaizer Corps in New York City after finally getting all of the members from all over the world. After telling the group what to do, Toxic lead them through the doors and were greeted immediately.

"Welcome Seven Deadly Sins to Kaizer Corporations."

The voice belonged to a brown haired man standing in front of the main desk. He stood at about 5'10" and was wearing an average grey suit. He was smiling at them and appeared to be in about his early forties.

Toxic walked up to the man who raised his hand towards him. Toxic shook it.

"Nice to finally meet you Toxic."

"And you Mr. Kaizer."

The man looked at the rest of the group and smiled.

"Nice to meet you all."

They all responded and he looked back at Toxic.

"We should take this up to my office to discuss things. After my assistant leads you to your rooms of course."

Toxic nodded and a 5'6" woman with black hair in a bun came from around the desk. She seemed to be in her mid twenties.

"Please follow me."

Toxic motioned for the group to follow him and they walked towards the elevator where the assistant swiped a card and pressed the 48 key.

"It is nice to meet you all, I am Megan."

All of the group greeted her except for Toxic who was examining his surroundings. From the keys on the elevator there was 50 floors.

"What is on floor 49 and 50?" he asked her.

"49 is where Mr. Kaizer has his own private room, and 50 is his office."

Toxic was satisfied with the answer, for now. Once they reached the floor they walked out and looked around.

"These 8 rooms are all of your's and past this is where the kitchen and living room are. Each room has a full bath and sink as well an enough room for whatever you need. Choose any room you wish."

Everyone started to walk into their room, but was stopped by Toxic who pulled a plastic bag out of his suitcase.

"I recommend you all standing away from the rooms, unless you want your electronics fried."

They all quickly got away as Toxic walked by each room and walked in for a few moments before coming out and threw small balls into each one and they heard a small sizzling sound.

After he was finished he came back over to them.

"There, now any electronics I did not unplug in the room were just fried."

They all looked at him like he was crazy, except for Megan.

"Mr. Kaizer had hoped you would be cautious, it shows signs of a smart person and a good leader."

Toxic didn't respond and just motioned for everyone to choose a room. And he followed Raven into hers. When everyone tried to look at him funny, except for Monkey he just shot back one and continued in.

After five minutes everyone was back in the elevator and Megan swiped her card again and pressed the 50 key. Once they reached the top they all followed Megan.

The office was a very large wide open room with large windows as most of the walls and a large desk on the other side of the room with seven chairs in front of it. Mr. Kaizer was sitting at the desk and smiled when they walked in.

"How did you enjoy the rooms?" he asked, but it seemed to be directed at Toxic.

"I don't know yet, I have to see how many recording devices I fried."

He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Kaizer's smile widen slightly at that.

"Please sit down everyone."

Everyone except for Toxic sat down, opting to stand behind Raven.

"Why don't you sit down Toxic?"

"I have put enough trust in your hands as is, plus I prefer to stand up when I am discussing business."

Kaizer shrugged as if to say to each their own.

"Very well. Firstly what questions do you have?"

"What is the details of our job here at Kaizer Corps, I have my suspicions, but would like to know for sure."

"Fair enough. As you all probably know, a little over two years ago my company as well as Razor Inc. and several other small companies finished the virtual reality technology and released it on the market. We had planned on releasing it global scale a year ago, but that was delayed to four months ago because of a falling out we had with Razor."

They all had heard this already.

"Well what most do not know is that we have been competing for dominance over this virtual world we have taken to calling Arc Net. Even most people in the world do not know that we are doing this. Over the time Arc Net has been out various virtual games have come out for it. Anything from shooters to platformers and everything in-between has come out, even if there are few of them at the moment. The only major genre to not have a release yet is an MMO. Since these tend to be such large games and add on to the completely different environment, none have come out as of yet."

This was interesting, but none of them save Toxic saw the point.

"Well the main way we have been competing for dominance in the Arc Net is by owning more of the things in game and being more popular. At first we just payed teams in game to wear outfits advertising us and selling merchandise. This was going on until two months ago when Razor and a few other companies hired their own teams of young gamers to compete. This cause a dramatic shift in power to them, so I decided to hire my own as well, and the best way to start off this new team is with the four new MMO's releasing in two weeks time."

Now all of it was starting to come together for the others.

"I have acquired betas and advanced copies of the games. I want you all to represent my company and help me gain control of the Arc Net."

"As I had assumed. Tell us some information on the MMO's."

Kaizer looked at Megan who flipped to a certain page on her planner.

"All four MMO's were created from several different companies coming together. The leveling systems are extremely similar and all skills can carry over from each game as well as most equipment. You can unlock skills from in different games and use them in others or come across them by doing similar ways of getting them in a different game. There is not a known max level and the every known skill can go to 1000. You level up by increasing skills, leveling up gives you ten attribute points which you can place in nine different attributes : Vitality which increases health and slightly increases your stamina, Willpower which makes it more difficult to be manipulated, increases mana regeneration, and makes learning new things easier, Intelligence which increases mana and the amount of skills you can know at one time, Endurance which increases stamina and how much you can hold at any one time, Finesse which slightly increases stamina and dexterity, makes you harder to detect and hear, and slightly affects speed at which you do things such as drawing a bow or casting a skill, Athletics which gives a below average boost to stamina, burden, speed, strength, and jumping ability, Resistance which increases your overall defense to different types of damage, Personality which makes it easier to obtain information, barter, and to intimidate or charm people, and Luck which increases the rarity, amount, and chance of drops from enemies and chest."

That sounded pretty normal for a MMO, a bit more expansive, but still not very strange.

"The first MMO is considered the most difficult for it's sheer length and how difficult the enemies become, it is names Sword Art Online. The second is the sister game to SAO and is considered the easiest, it is named Alfheim Online. The third game is considered the goriest and most gruesome of the titles, it also the only one that is drastically different from most MMO's. It is named Story Book of Horrors. The fourth and final one is based in a post apocalyptic world where a strange disease spread through everyone under 25 and either caused them to die or develop special powers, it is labeled The Final Generation."

Now that was interesting. All of those sounded like they could be very fun games.

"Sword Art Online focuses mainly on close quarters combat and allows you to use almost any melee weapon in history. The skills that are easily obtainable are sword skills which allow you to use special combat moves with your weapon. It has 100 levels with each level becoming much more difficult. The only easy way to get something similar to magic is through magic items. It is also said by the developers that being in a party is almost mandatory for completion."

That sounded promising to all of them. Not very original, but when it came to virtual reality originality wasn't needed.

"Alfheim Online the sister game to SAO, is more based on magic with most of the same things applying. You can still use melee weapons, but magic helps you fight enemies. The game is based around 9 races of elves, each one pertaining to a different type of magic, who are all fighting to reach the top of the Great Tree in the center of the map. The ones who reach the top first are given wings that will allow you to fly with no limit on time, unlike the normal wings which last 10 minutes at most. Not as difficult as the others, but most likely because you are given a party in your fellow elves at the beginning."

Now that sounded very interesting to most of them, not Toxic as much because he didn't like working with people outside of his group usually.

"Story Book of Horrors is an interesting MMO based on myths and legends. The total amount of starting classes is unknown, but confirmed classes are Vampire, Werewolf, Demon Slayer, Troll, Incubus/Succubus, Banshee, Demon, and Asura. The exact end goal of the game is currently unknown, but each class allows you to at least look human and the world you are in is eternally dark and passes through phases of the moon. It is different from the others because the starting class is very important and is the only one with no definite end goal."

Now that one caught everyone's attention.

"Finally The Final Generation, when you create your character you are randomly given powers based on your age, weight, height, and intelligence. Known powers include telekinesis, pyrokinesis, mind control, electrokinesis, hydrokinesis, terrakinesis, flying, super speed, super strength, metamorphosis, invisibility, and intangibility. While these are the only confirmed powers, there are rumored to be hundreds of different powers and many having different branching paths. The goal of the game is to take over the government which has tried to confine and control all of the people with powers."

This caught everyone's attention, but none as much as Toxic and Monkey who were grinning like mad.

"Now for some things shared through all of them. You can learn any and all techniques in any of the games if you have any idea how to unlock them, except for class linked abilities which are unlocked one you play those games. The only known ability which does not carry over is flying from Alfheim Online. Also each game has abilities such as fishing and cooking which can also be leveled up in all games. Almost all equipment can be switched to different games and all stats do carry over to other games."

Most of them had figured that out all ready.

Now Kaizer took back over.

"Now that you have heard about each of them I need to know two things. First, do you agree to this job?"

Toxic looked over all of his friends. They all nodded at him in acceptance.

"We agree to it."

Kaizer was beaming at this.

"Great and second, I was only able to obtain two beta keys and advanced copies for AHO, SBH, and FG and one for SAO. I need to know who will be playing each."

"It would be best for Muse and Raven to do AHO since they are the most social and work best with others and they are both support types."

Everyone in the group accepted this. They were by far the easiest to get along with.

"Ares and Death should play SBH together since they work best together and are the best at games in general which should help them with it."

This made sense to everyone since SBH was a bit of an unknown.

"Angel and Monkey should play FG because Angel can be support for Monkey and Monkey need someone to help keep his cool."

Everyone knew this even Monkey who knew how crazy he could get at times.

"Which leaves myself for SAO who is the best at playing by themselves and do not need someone watching my back."

Even though Ares and Death would be better for this, but since there was only one key for SAO that wasn't an option.

Kaizer told Megan to write that down and looked back at them.

"Now you have already heard my offer for doing this, will it suffice."

"50,000 a month plus expenses, correct?"

Kaizer nodded approvingly.

"Yes that will suffice."

"Great. You may return to your rooms, tomorrow you will go into the Arc Net for the first time and the beta for you games start the next day. The beta will last ten days and then the actual release will take place two days later. Also, give Megan the list for what you need for computers and other things you think you need, she will take care of it. The only thing I will make you pay for while here is things that will not help with your job and you will not have to pay for living expenses, aside from food. Is that fair?"

Everyone in the group thought it was more than fair.

"Excellent. It is currently five in the afternoon. Your first "dive" as we like to call it will commence at eight tomorrow. Your refrigerator have been stocked for your first time here, until then enjoy."

As they were all beginning to leave Kaizer spoke up.

"Toxic I need you to stay for a few minutes."

Before anyone could say anything Toxic held his hand up.

"Raven give Megan the computer specs I have in my suitcase. You know where it is."

She nodded and they walked to the elevator. Once they were gone Kaizer spoke.

"You have impressed me today Toxic. I was afraid I had wasted my time on your group, but I was greatly surprised. You are probably wondering why I asked you to stay back, correct?"

Toxic just nodded his head.

"Well firstly I wanted to give you this,"

He handed Toxic a shiny black card with his name on it.

"This will allow you to access any floor in this building, your friends will be getting one to, but your's allows you to come up here and to my room if need be. I am trusting you with this, I know I don't need to explain the rules to this card."

Toxic just nodded and placed it in his back pocket.

"Second, I see that you care for your friends which is admirable and I promise you that as long as I am your employer I will try my best to make sure that they are protected."

Toxic just looked at him for a moment before grinning and holding his hand out.

"I am beginning to like you Kaizer."

Kaizer smiled back and shook his hand.

"Anything else before I leave."

"Yes, you do not need to worry about advertising who you are. I will make sure everyone knows who you are. Also, in the MMO's try your best to at least be among the ones who complete the game to get as much publicity as possible."

"Understood, I will be heading to my room now."

Kaizer nodded and Toxic headed to Raven and his room.

Once the elevator opened to the rooms he walked out and saw that everyone was in the living room. He walked in and they all said hello to him.

"Hey guys we need to talk."

They all sat in the living room. Ares, Death and Monkey on the couch, Angel and Muse in the recliners, and Toxic and Raven in the smaller couch.

"Okay guys, I know we just really met, but we should at least know somethings about each other so starting with number seven on are chokers and going down tell us about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and anything else you want to share."

Muse knew her number and started.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here, no sense in creating fake name) **and I like music, art, and computers. I dislike self centered people and people who dislike things because they are different. My hobbies include drawing, painting, designing, and composing. I am 16 years old, I was born and raised in Japan, and my favorite color is yellow."

At this Angel went.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here) **and I like gaming, hacking, and reading. I dislike people who are hateful towards others for no reason and people who and large groups. My hobbies include gaming, hacking, reading, and listening to music. I am 16 years old, I was born and raised in England, and my favorite colors are white and grey."

Now it was Ares turn.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here) **and I like skateboarding, gaming, and music. I dislike people who discriminate against people who like different things and people who try to hard to follow the crowd. My hobbies include skateboarding, gaming, playing guitar, bass, and drums. I am 17 years old, born and raised in England, Death is my brother, and my favorite colors are red and silver."

Now Death was up.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here) **and I like gaming, working on computers, reading, and music. I dislike others who try to hurt others for no reason and people who think if you don't come first you come last. My hobbies include gaming, reading, and listening to music. I am 17 years old, and like Ares was born and raised in England, my favorite color is black."

Fifth up was Monkey.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here) **and I like music, manga, gaming, and basketball. I dislike people who hate others for arbitrary reasons. My hobbies include basketball, gaming, looking at manga, and playing piano. I am 18 years old, I was born and raised in the United State, I have been with Toxic since he was seven and I was eight, and my favorite color is green."

Raven was the sixth.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here) **and I like reading, music, gaming, and coding. I dislike annoying and stupid people. My hobbies include reading, singing, gaming and coding. I am 16 years old, I was also born and raised in the United States, I have known Toxic for three years now, Toxic is also the one who gave me the name Raven, and my favorite color is purple."

Last, but not least was Toxic.

"Hello everyone, **(name said here)** and I like reading, gaming, coding, learning, and music. I dislike ignorant people and people who are close minded and bigoted. My hobbies include gaming, hacking, coding, reading, and I guess singing could be worse. I am 17 years old, like Raven and Monkey I was born in the Unites States, my name refers to how unless you are immune I will corrode and corrupt anything, and my favorite color is midnight blue."

No one said anything for quite some time, just thinking of each other's responses.

After about ten minutes Toxic spoke up.

"Okay, it is about eight right now so are first dive is in twelve hours. Do whatever you want in that time? I would recommend talking to your partner about the game you will be beta testing and researching it. None of us have any real prior knowledge of most of these things so it would be best to research them. If you have anymore questions I'll be in my room."

With that Toxic stood up and walked over to his room and started unpacking. After he had everything unpacked and put away he pulled out the laptop he brought and started looking for as much information as possible on SAO. Sadly all he found was the main designer behind the game, Kayaba Akihiko, who appeared to be a genius of sorts. Aside from his biography there wasn't much else about the game that he didn't know.

Oh well, he could figure it out as he went.

* * *

**The Following Morning**

Toxic opened his eyes and looked down at Raven. He smiled before looking over at the clock. It was 6:30 in the morning.

"So about two and a half hours, that'll do."

Toxic unwrapped his arms from Raven and grabbed some clothes before going into the bathroom. He took a 15 minute shower before walking out with his shirt over his shoulder.

He walked over to Raven and kissed her on the cheek.

"You need to wake up."

She slowly sat up.

"What time is it?"

"It is 6:50. You should go ahead and take a shower."

She nodded before getting up and grabbing her clothes and going to take a shower.

"I'm kind of thirst I'll grab something to drink and then make sure everyone is awake."

Toxic walked out of the room and into the kitchen. He opened the fridge hoping to see something he like. He picked up a Dr. Pepper and cracked it open.

"Man that is good."

He heard a gasp from behind and saw Muse standing their fully dressed and her hair dripping wet. He wondered why she gasped until he realized he didn't have a shirt on.

"Oh sorry, you saw them did you?"

She just nodded not trusting her voice.

He sighed and put on his shirt. He had lots of scars all over his back and sides. After his shirt was on she spoke.

"What happened?"

He just placed a hand on her head.

"That is a story for another time."

She didn't push it and just nodded. After making sure everyone was up he went back into the living room and sat on the couch.

After a few minutes he felt someone sit next to him and he opened his eyes. It was Muse.

"How are you feeling Muse?"

She seemed surprised by the question.

"What do you mean?"

"How do you feel about being here? About this whole situation?

She thought about it for a little bit, before finally responding.

"So far it seems nice. I miss my parents slightly, but this is a very nice change of atmosphere. It is also nice to be around people who accept you."

Toxic nodded and stood up patting her on the head.

"I'm going to go see Kaizer and make sure everything is okay?"

She nodded and he went and put on shoes and pun on his dark blue and silver jacket before going to the elevator and swiping his key.

"Maybe he will already be in his office?"

He pressed 50 and the elevator quickly went up.

Once he reached the top he walked inside and saw Kaizer at his desk, Kaizer looked up and smiled.

"Hello Toxic, why are you up here?"

"I was making sure everything was set for us to do the dive at eight."

Kaizer nodded in understanding.

"Yes everything is up and running on the 47th floor. It is currently 7:20 so you have about forty minutes."

Toxic nodded and turned around to leave.

"Wait I have a question for you Toxic."

Toxic looked back in waiting.

"Why didn't you ask for more money? I was willing to pay twice what I offered."

"I do not care much for personal wealth and none of the others said they needed more."

Kaizer didn't respond, but he seemed satisfied with the answer. Toxic walked back to the elevator and went to the rooms. Once down there he walked into the living room and saw Death, Angel, and Muse were in there talking.

"He said everything was ready and to go to floor 47."

They all nodded and he sat down on the two seat couch.

"Are Monkey and Ares getting ready getting ready?"

"Yes they are," Death responded.

**(20 Minutes Later because fuck you that's why)**

Everyone was finally sitting in the living room again.

"So is everyone ready?" Toxic asked.

They all responded and he stood up.

"Than let's go."

Once they reached the 47th floor they looked around the room. It was a large white room that looked like a mix between a laboratory and a hospital with about 15 hospital beds lining the walls. Kaizer was talking to a short 5'2" woman with red hair.

Kaizer turned to them and smiled.

"Hello seven, this is Ashley the my head medical expert. She will be watching over your bodies while you are in the Arc Net."

Toxic walked up to the woman and held his hand out.

"Hello Ashley."

She shook it and smiled.

"Hello Toxic."

"Okay now that you have met those seven beds have the Arc Net headgear on them."

Toxic looked where Kaizer was pointing and walked over to one of the beds and picked up the headgear closely examining it for a few minutes.

After he felt satisfied he layed down and put it on. The screen popped up a message asking him to start.

"Start," was all he said.

The screen went black before going through all senses saying they were okay.

With that the screen flashed bright before going through an array of colors. The screen briefly went blank and then he was in a large white room.

He looked around for a moment before seeing text appear in the air. It asked him what he wanted his name to be.

"Toxic," he responded.

The screen briefly went through a loading screen and then his name appeared asking if that was correct he just pressed the okay button in the air.

Next it asked him if wanted to look like his real self or to customize his looks. He chose to look like himself. After it loaded and showed how he looked in real life it asked if this was correct he pressed yes.

Finally it asked him if he wanted his clothes to look like his real one, or to customize them. He chose to stay like his real ones and it showed his clothes asking if it was correct he pressed yes.

With that the text dissipated and his surroundings went black before an entire city came into view.

Toxic turned around and looked at everything. He figured he was somewhere near the center of the city and this was where new players come in. It seemed like it was a very large circular area from what he could tell.

After a few minutes the others started showing up, first was Monkey. Monkey ran up to him.

"Man that was insane, and this city is crazy. Was I the first to come through besides you?"

Toxic just nodded and patted Monkey on the shoulder. They looked around the city waiting for the others to show up. After five minutes everyone was there and looking around.

"Okay everyone check your inventories. You might have something."

They all did as he said.

Muse had a beta key for AHO and a key for the actual game when it came out, as did Raven.

Ares and Death had keys for the beta of SBH and the actual game.

Angel and Monkey had beta keys for FG and keys for the actual game.

Toxic also had keys for the beta of SAO and the actual game.

They all also had a starting gift box which had 5,000 credits and a week worth of vouchers for hotels.

"The credits in the Arc Net are shared in everything, so if you earn credits in a game you earn them for this world and every other world as well, the only time this doesn't apply is if the creator of a game doesn't want your outside credits affecting it. They can make it so your credits from the game effect everything else, but not the other way around. Also in the Arc Net you have to sleep to log out. If you don't sleep in a house or hotel it is possible for people to mess with your body."

Everyone nodded in acknowledgement at Toxic's explanation.

"How did you find that out, Toxic?" Angel asked.

"Remember I was in this world for thirty minutes. I didn't get to learn much more than that and see where some things were though."

They all nodded in acceptance, that made sense.

"Before we go looking around we need to find a place to stay when we want to leave."

They all agreed and they quickly headed to the nearest hotel. People looked at them as they passed because they were such an odd group. but no one really bothered them.

It took about 15 minutes to reach the nearest hotel they walked through the doors and up to the counter. He turned to the group.

"I'll need a voucher from all of you."

They quickly took one out each and handed it to him. He grabbed them and walked up to the counter.

"I need six rooms, preferably on the same floor and one with a large bed."

She smiled and took the vouchers before going through the computer and checking off the rooms.

She handed him seven key cards. Two looked slightly different.

"Your rooms are on the seventh floor and these two go to the large room."

Toxic nodded and walked back to his group and handed them their respective cards.

"Now that we have that taken care of, you should split into the groups you will have during the beta and look for any info on your game or just this world in general. Meet back here at four."

They all walked out side and looked around.

"Monkey and Angel take the west, Raven and Muse the north, Ares and Death the east, and I'll take the south."

They all started heading in their respective directions. Toxic looked around as he walked admiring the design of the city. There was no telling how many hours of work had gone into this and how much data it consisted of.

As he was walking he saw four guys in an alley, it appeared that they were talking to someone. He decided to see what was going on.

As he got closer the guys noticed he was there and turned to him. This allowed him to see a very small girl surrounded by them. She couldn't have been taller than three and a half feet.

"What do you want? Can't you see we are busy here?" the one he assumed was the leader of the others asked.

"Why are you bothering this weak, defenseless girl? Trying to compensate for something?" he responded.

This seemed to anger all of them. The leader made a motion for them to remain still.

"Why don't you just leave newbie, before I have my boys make you," the leader responded.

"This world is made entirely of code, right? So someone who knows enough about coding could do..."

He stomped and a metal sword came out of the ground and Toxic caught it.

"... something like this."

This shocked the group, they had heard stories of people doing things like that, but never saw it first hand.

"Now why don't you all leave her alone and move along?"

He rested the sword on his shoulder and turned to allow them to walk by. They looked at each other before deciding to leave. They slowly walked away each of them giving Toxic a nasty look.

Once he was sure they were gone he let the sword dissipate and walked up to the girl. She looked to be around eight years old and was wearing a dark green turtleneck, dark jeans, and slip on sneakers.

"So why is a little girl like you in this world?"

He held his hand out to help her up. She took it and stood up brushing herself.

"I am actually eleven, but I am a late bloomer."

Toxic decided to not continue the subject.

"So why were those four messing with you?"

"They were trying to take my stuff and mess with me because I look so young."

Toxic nodded in acceptance. Some people needed to appease their own egos.

"I see. Well if that is all I'll be going."

Toxic turned to leave, but only got a few steps before he felt a tug on his pants. He looked back to see her next to him.

"Is it okay if I come with you? I don't want to be alone while those guys are still here."

Toxic thought about it before just shrugging.

"Sure. What is your name?"

She smiled brightly and followed him as he walked.

"I go by Argo. And what is your's?"

"Toxic is what everyone calls me."

"That's a cool name. So how did you do that sword thing earlier?"

Toxic just shrugged.

"I figured since this entire world was made of code, that if I tried I could manipulate it."

"Cool. How long have you been coming to the Arc Net?"

"This is my first day here."

Toxic waited for a response, but never got one so he looked back. Argo was bent over and panting.

_"She must have been struggling to keep up with me."_

Toxic walked up to her and picked her up.

"Hey what are you..."

He placed her on his shoulders.

"There now you won't have to struggle to keep up."

She looked like she wanted to argue, but decided against it. She lent forward against his head.

Now people were really looking at them strangely. He couldn't blame them really, a guy like him caring around a little girl was probably very strange looking, but he payed them no mind.

"What can you tell me about this place? I was just wandering around when I found you."

She tapped his head as she thought, Toxic thought about saying something, but let it pass.

"Tomorrow the four huge MMO's will be starting their beta's. I got lucky and got a beta key for SAO."

"Really? I guess I will be seeing you there then. How many beta keys were given out anyways?"

"You are going to be in the beta to? Cool. I think 2000 beta keys for each game and then 20,000 copies of each game."

"Interesting. Yes others in my group got beta keys to the other MMO's."

"Wow that is so cool. Can I meet your group later?"

Toxic thought about it for a moment, mostly to make her think he was really deciding.

"Its twelve right now, I'll be meeting up with them at four. So you can meet them then."

She hugged his head which probably looked as weird as it felt.

"Thank you. Can we team up in game to? I can be an info broker and be your eyes and ears."

Now that was an interesting offer, one that Toxic would have to be stupid to refuse. He reached up and patted her on the head.

"Sure, it'll be nice to have some company."

She pouted slightly at him patting her head, but smiled at what he said.

"So is there anything else you can tell me about this place?"

"Well you can get a job here to earn money and be sent to jail just like in real life. The difference was that there are no police officers so you have to take people that deserve to go to jail there. Also you can buy houses and just about any other thing you'd find in the real world. You start to feel hunger and thirst so you can drink and eat if you want to make the feeling go away, but it is just a temporary fix. You eventually have to leave and eat."

"Interesting. How long have you been coming to the Arc Net?"

"About two months now."

Toxic didn't respond and just thought about what she had told him.

"Oh and you can change anything about yourself with enough money, really you can do just about anything here with enough money."

"What happens if you die here?"

"If you were in a game you would just re spawn, but if you were just in the Arc Net then you would be forcefully logged out and all of your items would be left where you were. When you return you would come in at the beginning area."

"Okay. Hey its almost two. Do you want to get something to eat or drink?"

She seemed slightly saddened by this.

"I don't have any money."

"Don't worry about it, I'll pay for it."

He was again awarded with an odd head hug.

"Okay calm down, now what do you want?"

"A milkshake!"

Toxic just shook his head at her outburst that made everyone nearby look at them.

"Okay, what flavor?"

"Chocolate!"

Toxic had to resist the urge to face palm as he walked over to a small store to get the ice cream.

"I need two milkshakes, one chocolate and one vanilla."

The girl at the cash register looked at him oddly for a moment before placing his order. He payed her and she quickly made them for him and handed them over.

He handed the chocolate one to Argo as he walked out.

"Here you go."

She squealed happily and started drinking it.

Toxic slowly drank his and checked the time.

"Its almost three lets start heading to meet my group."

She didn't say anything and just tapped him on the head causing him to sigh as he started walking towards the hotel.

It took almost an hour and when they arrived at the hotel it was 3:45. They were waiting out side for everyone.

"They should be here soon. Any questions or anything you want to tell me while we wait?" he asked her.

"How many people are in your group?"

"Including me there are seven of us, two girls and five guys."

"How old are you?"

"I'm seventeen at the moment."

Before she could ask something else someone said his name.

"Hey Toxic."

Toxic looked to the left and saw Angel and Monkey.

"Hey guys."

"Whose the girl?" Angel asked.

"This is Argo, I'll explain more once everyone is here."

Both of them nodded in understanding, better to not explain it several times.

After a few more minutes Raven, Muse, Ares, and Death.

"Okay since everyone is here, this is Argo. Argo these people are Ares, Death, Angel, Monkey, Muse, and Raven," Toxic said and pointed at each of them.

When she heard their names Argo's eyes widened and she hugged Toxic's head tightly.

"Wait Toxic, Raven, Angel, Muse, Monkey, Ares, and Death? The Seven Deadly Sins?!"

She squealed and tightened her hold on his head. Toxic slammed his hand against his face.

"I had hoped you wouldn't know who we were."

"Not know who you are? Everyone knows who you all are. Death and Ares the greatest duo of this generation, Angel one of the greatest rangers and modders, Monkey almost undetectable and cloaks himself in the dark, Muse an art designer and artist prodigy, Raven amazing multitasker able to focus on almost the entire battlefield at once, and Toxic one of the smartest people in gaming and leader and general over the other Sins."

They all looked at her in bewilderment. They had known they were very well known, but not to the extent of idol ship.

Toxic started laughing and patted her on the head.

"Well that is interesting, I had no idea we were so well known."

Argo was now blushing at the fact she had shown how much she knew about them. She started hitting him on the head.

"Don't tease me Toxic."

Toxic held up his hands in defeat.

"Okay I quit. Anyways, I found this little firecracker being bothered by some guys and after getting rid of them she decided to walk around with me. Along the way she told me quite a bit about this place. I also found out she will be in the beta for SAO so I'll be teaming up with her. We should probably share what we all found out about this world or the MMO's."

Everyone nodded in agreement. First Toxic told all of them what he had heard from Argo and then it was Raven and Muse's turn.

They found out that betas will begin at twelve tomorrow and that it will be where they came in at.

Death and Ares had found out that the powers from FG and your powers from SBH would both take away from your mana, unless they were powers with cool downs.

Monkey and Angel had found out that powers like the ones in FG would manifest in other games at a certain level and that your powers were based off your real body and mind, not your in game character.

"We learned quite a bit today which is good. Its almost six now so we should log out. Do you have somewhere to stay Argo?"

She looked embarrassed to answer so Toxic took another voucher out and handed it to the lady at the desk who gave him another key and he handed it to Argo.

"You really don't need to do that."

He just waved it off and followed the others over to the elevator and they went to the seventh floor.

Once they were on their floor Toxic put Argo down.

"We'll meet up at eleven tomorrow and head to the center of town. Okay?"

She nodded and they all left to their rooms to log out.

* * *

**Next Day - 11:00 A.M.**

Toxic placed the headgear back on and layed down allowing it to make sure his senses were okay. When he opened his eyes he was in the hotel room laying next to Raven. He stood up and stretched as he waited on Raven to get in, it only took about a minute for her to sit up and stretch.

They both walked out as everyone else was walking out of their rooms. He saw Argo who ran over to him and just stood there. He grinned at the fact that she was embarrassed and picked her up placing her on his shoulders.

"Everyone ready?"

They all said yes and they went to the elevator going to the main lobby. They quickly gave the lady their keys before heading towards the center of town.

Once they got near the center of town they started hearing lots of noise and once they were within seeing distance they saw thousands of people in the center of town. Now Toxic understood why the town center was a circle with about a mile wide diameter and nothing in it.

Apparently a large stage had been put at the center of the circle. It was nearing 11:30 when some people came out onto the stage.

He recognized one of the people as Kayaba. Another man walked up to the podium with a microphone.

"Welcome everybody to the beta launch of our four MMO's, Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, Story Book of Horrors, and last, but certainly not least The Final Generation. 2000 lucky people have been selected to beta test each game and will do so for the next ten days, and then two days later a lucky 20,000 people will begin playing each game. More copies of the game will be released soon, but we need to see how the worlds handle these 20,000 first."

People were cheering and screaming in joy.

"All beta testers should know now that your characters will be deleted upon the official release of each game, but you will be given something in return for beta testing. Also while you are beta testing feel free to send messages to the game masters if you find any bugs or glitches."

The man quickly checked the time.

"With that let the beta test begin! Activate your beta key and login to your respective games!"

People started scrambling to do so, while Toxic and the gang were doing it more patiently.

"Remember everyone be safe and do your best."

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

Toxic had said the same thing before they had logged in for the beta and the official release. Now he was in a large dark room and a screen asking for customization came up.

He quickly chose to look like himself and for his name to be Toxic and then another message popped up saying that since he was a beta tester he was allowed to have a wider array of choice in his first weapon and he could chose one piece of armor/clothing to start the game with.

He looked through the options for his weapon, and since they didn't have what he wanted he went with a five foot long metal bo staff and he chose a midnight blue cloak as his apparel. Once he had the cloak on and the staff in hand a message popped up saying welcome back to Sword Art Online.

He opened his eyes to be welcomed back to the world of Aincrad. He looked around and saw people materializing into the game. Most of them being new players they were marveling at the world around them. After a few minutes he felt someone tugging on his pants and looked down to see Argo in a red cloak with twin daggers on her waist. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair causing her to pout.

"It feels great to be back doesn't it?" he asked her.

She just nodded and looked around at all of the people.

"We should split up for the first few hours and look for any differences in the game from when we played it. We can move from the Town of Beginnings tomorrow."

"Okay, we can meet back here in four hours," she responded.

They both nodded and pulled their hoods up before they went their separate ways. Argo dashing through people's legs and Toxic maneuvering around everyone.

After several hours of Toxic fighting different beginner enemies and testing the combat system and Argo observing NPC's and their AI's they met up back at the beginning.

"The enemies seem to fight differently and to be changed up some and the fighting seems to have been tweaked a little," Toxic commented.

"The NPC's seem to be about the same, but some seem nervous, it is probably because of this being the first day," Argo added.

As they both stood their thinking people started being teleported into the area.

"It must be a game master explaining some things to people," Argo said.

Toxic wasn't so sure and placed Argo on his shoulders. She was going to question him until the entire sky started turning red and warning messages appeared.

Giant blobs of red started seeping through the sky and formed together. They eventually formed into a giant robbed figure.

**"Welcome everyone to Sword Art Online, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in my world."**

* * *

**A/N Another chapter out so soon? I know it is crazy, but I have just felt like writing and this just spewed out.**

**If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, feel free to post them. Also the reason I am using Argo as Toxic's sidekick of sorts is because I really like the idea of her character.**

**On another note, if anyone has any ideas for the powers everyone will receive please post them. I have some ideas at the moment, but I can't make up my mind.**

**Anyways, until next time,**

**Toxic Meltdown Out.**


	4. More Than a Game

**A/N I keep coming up with some weird ideas in my head for this story and I have no idea what I am going to do really. It is amazing and awful at the same time.**

**If you are wondering why I skipped the beta in the last chapter, just know that I have my reasons, I can't say more than that without giving out spoilers.**

**If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post them.**

**To the Guest who asked. Firstly I decided to have Kayaba be the one to show up in every game, does this mean he is the one and only game master? I don't know I guess you will have to find out. Second, The Final Generation is loosely based off the series The Darkest Minds.**

**Anyways onto chapter four, More Than a Game.**

* * *

**Last Time**

Toxic and Argo had went around SAO seeing the differences between the official release and the beta. Once they got back to the starting place and were talking about the differences all of the players started getting teleported there. Once Toxic saw this he picked Argo up and placed her on his shoulders.

The sky suddenly started turning red and a red goo started seeping through and forming together. After a little bit the goo formed into a giant robed figure.

**"Welcome everyone to Sword Art Online, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in my world."**

Everyone was talking now and some people were yelling.

**"As you have noticed by now the log out button is not in your menu."**

Toxic quickly checked as well as several others in the crowd. He was right there was no log out button.

**"This is not a bug or a glitch, this is a feature of Sword Art Online. You are not allowed to log out and if anyone from the outside tries to take off your headgear it will send a microwave pulse frying your brain."**

Toxic wasn't sure if it could really do that, but he didn't want to find out.

**"The only way to leave is to clear all 100 levels of Aincrad. Once at least one person does this I will allow everyone to leave."**

Toxic as well as most of the beta testers knew that would take a while.

**"Now for some extra knowledge. If you die in the game you die in real life. Once you reach level 15 you will gain the powers you would have gained in The Final Generation. If you need proof that you will die if you remove the head gear, here."**

He pulled up several screens showing various news channels covering stories of people having their brains fried by the headgear being removed.

**"Also I have a gift for everyone."**

Everyone checked their inventories and took out the new item causing anyone who had customized their looks to look like their true selves.

**"With that I will be going."**

Before he could leave Toxic jumped on top of the fountain in the beginning area.

"Wait! When we complete this game are we allowed to move on to another game and help them complete it?"

The figure seemed surprised by the question.

**"If that is what you want then I will allow it. Though you will not be able to choose the game. Now if that is all I will be leaving"**

With that the figure dissipated and the sky returned to normal. While everyone was panicking Toxic took off leaving out of town.

"Where are we going Toxic?" Argo asked.

"We need to head to the next town and get some better weapons quickly. Normally taking a while to get them would be okay, but I can't take the chance of sub par players getting them. We can use them more efficiently. Also I need you to be investing more points into personality, finesse, and luck. You can be the more sneaky and as you said my eyes and ears while I can be the offensive one."

Argo just tapped his head in understanding as they continued running. He quickly took down the weak enemies as he ran, allowing Argo to get the last hit if possible.

* * *

**After Kayaba Left From SAO - Muse and Raven**

Both Muse and Raven had decided on both becoming Undine since they were both supportive types and so they could be near each other from the start. After they had surveyed everything and compared the differences between the official release and the beta the sky turned red and a giant robed figure appeared above their town.

**"Welcome everyone to Alfheim Online, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in my world."**

This caused hysteria among many people and Muse and Raven looked at each other.

**"As some of you have noticed there is no log out button in your menu. This is not a bug or a glitch, this is a feature of Alfheim Online The only way to log out is to complete the game."**

Many people checked to see if there was a log out button, including Muse and Raven.

**"If someone on the outside takes your headgear off your brain will be fried by a microwave pulse. For proof of this look at these."**

Giant screens with videos of news channels covering stories of people's brains being fried appeared in the air.

**"The only way to clear the game is to get to the top of the giant tree in the center of the map. This will prove more difficult than you think."**

Everyone was dealing with it better than SAO since it shouldn't be to hard.

**"Now for some bonus knowledge. If you die in the game you die in real life. And once you reach level 15 you will gain the powers you would have gained in The Final Generation."**

Now that changed things. Not being able to die would make people play more defensively and make things take longer.

**"Also before I go, you should know that if another of the games is completed the people of that game can choose to be randomly sent to another game to help everyone. You can thank Mr. tall, dark, and handsome for this."**

A video of Toxic asking his question popped up making both Muse and Raven smile.

**"Now, I have a gift for everyone, check your inventories."**

Everyone did as he said and pulled out a mirror that changed all of their appearances to their real bodies.

**"And with that I will be going, good luck."**

Kayaba dissipated and the sky returned to normal.

It didn't take long for the situation to sink and for a lot of people to freak out.

* * *

**After Kayaba Left AHO - Ares and Death**

Once Ares and Death got into the game they started looking out for changes that had happened since the end of the beta.

The world of Story Book of Horrors was a dark one to say the least. It had eternal nightfall and the moon changed it's phase every eight hours. The starting city itself looked like a version of 1800's England.

Also while the game wasn't extremely hard, the amount of gore and blood could definitely take its toll on someone. While in the beta no one could figure out what the end goal of the game was. What most people did was go out and hunt or do missions for various high ranking crime syndicates.

The missions were very odd. Unlike most MMO's the same one usually couldn't be repeated, but multiple people could take it at once. The reason for this is that most missions were assassination type missions. There were even some torturing type missions you could get if you wanted.

The classes you could choose from were Vampire, Werewolf, Incubus/Succubus, Banshee, Demon, Asura, Troll, Goblin, and the most dangerous class to play being Exorcist. Exorcist were the strongest class, but they were also in the most danger since they had to fight against the other classes most of the time.

Ares and Death had decided on being Asuras so they could grow six arms for a certain amount of time. The amount of time increased with their level and their amount of mana. **(If you are wondering what the fuck an Asura is just look up the game Asuras Wrath. The main character is an Asura. Or the Asura Path of Pain from Naruto he is based off of an Asura.)**

While they were talking about the changes they had noticed and debating what time they should leave, the sky started turning red and red goo started dripping from the sky.

It slowly formed together into a large robed figure.

**"Hello and welcome everyone, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are trapped in my world of Story Book of Horrors."**

Of course this got the usual reaction from a lot of the players, but more of them than the other games remained calm since this was a much more mature title.

**"Don't bother trying to log out you have no feature labeled as such in your menu. This is not a bug or a glitch as some of you are hoping this is a feature of all of these MMO's."**

This caused quite a few more people to freak out and Ares and Death looked at each other.

**"Also if someone from the outside tries to take the headgear off and log you out your brain will be fried from a microwave pulse. For further proof of this look at all of these."**

Several giant screens appeared in the air showing various news channels covering various stories of people's brains being fried. Seeing this caused most of the players to either scream, breakdown, or cry.

**"The only way to log out is to clear the game, and you are all probably wondering how you do that. I will give you a hint."**

Everyone who hadn't had a mental breakdown was now paying very close attention.

**"What you seek to destroy claims to be the destroyer of evil, but throughout history they have been shown to be the embodiment of evil. You must destroy all that have also shown this."**

Now that was an odd clue, but some sort of clue was better than none.

**"Now for some extra information. You will gain the powers you would have in The Final Generation at level 15. Also if you think you can just throw yourself a things, think again. If your health ever reaches zero in the game, you die in real life."**

Now that caused some pandemonium among the players.

**"Everything is not bad though, you will eventually be receiving some help courtesy of this young gentlemen."**

When Ares and Death saw the clip of Toxic they high-fived for some god damn reason.

**"Now before I go I have a gift for everyone, look in your inventories."**

Everyone did and soon everyone was changing into their real life bodies.

**"Now your petty facades have been destroyed, and with that I will say my farewell."**

Kayaba dissipated into the air and Ares and Death looked at each other trying to figure a plan out.

* * *

**After Kayaba Left SBH - Monkey and Angel**

The world of The Final Generation was an interesting one to say the least. The starting city looked similar to what an outpost would in a post apocalyptic world, but it wasn't in a desert it was in the ruins of a destroyed city.

Another odd thing was there wasn't any real kind of customizing once you started the game aside from appearance. No one even the beta testers didn't know why since they had never gotten powers in the beta either.

Aside from that the main enemies in the game were all robots. None of them had guns of any kind, except for maybe shooting knives or darts, most everyone figured it was because they couldn't waste power.

Aside from those things it seemed like a fairly normal MMO all things considered.

While Monkey and Angel talked about the changes they noticed from the beta the sky suddenly completely cleared before turning red. As everyone looked up towards the sky red goo started dripping from the sky and forming together.

After two minutes of this a giant robed figure formed from the goo.

**"Hello and welcome everyone to The Final Generation, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in the world."**

Cliche screams and shouts were heard from all over.

**"There is no log out button in your menu, this is not any bug or glitch of any kind, this is a feature of the new VRMMO's. You are not allowed to log out."**

Even more screams and shouts and now some people were crying, fucking pansies.

**"You cannot be logged out and if someone tries to remove your headgear from the outside and force log you out your brain will be fried by a microwave pulse. For further proof of this look at these."**

Once people saw the news stories some stopped screaming, whether it was because they toughened up or passed out we will never know.

**"The only way to log out of the game is to complete it by overthrowing the world government of this world. But after going through the other MMO's I have decided it will be in your best interest to wait a while. You will eventually be receiving help, and you can thank sleek and slender here."**

Some of the girls swooned over Toxic and Monkey and Angel were smiling like crazy.

**"Now for some other information. Once you reach level 15 you will gain your powers, you will have no idea what they will be or what will happen when you get them until then. And if you die in the game, you die in real life."**

Most people focused on the first piece of info, but Monkey took notice of the first. That explained why they never had powers in the beta. They never actually were allowed to go to level 15 they stopped once fully leveled through level 14.

**"Now that I am done I shall be going, remember you should probably wait on reinforcements, but you do not have to."**

With that Kayaba dissipated and the sky returned to normal.

* * *

**Back With Toxic and Argo - Right After Kayaba finished with The Final Generation**

They had finally reached the second town after almost two hours of constant running and Toxic was level three and Argo was almost to level three as well. Once they were in the town Toxic slowed down slightly.

"Hey Argo send a friend request to me and a request to sync are inventories. It will be easier to have them synced."

Argo tapped his head in understanding and quickly found those options sending the request to Toxic. He quickly accepted them.

"Okay now invite me to a party with you."

She did just that and they were now in a party.

"Good, now check are inventories and tell me what we have so far."

It took her a few minutes before she finally was finished checking it all.

"We have eight boar tusk, eleven boar hides, twelve wolf fangs, nine wolf pelts, fifteen slabs of pork, and about 12,000 credits."

Toxic just nodded thinking about what they had. It was a good start if nothing else.

"Okay we will grab the quests for the weapons we need now, do you remember where your's is?"

She tapped his head once for yes and he stopped and took her off his shoulders placing her on the ground.

"Okay be quick and grab the quest, hopefully it still gives the same thing. Don't let anyone who might look like a player see you, I doubt anyone else is here yet, but we can't be to careful. Meet me at the west side of town."

She nodded and quickly ran off into the shadows. Toxic ran his hand through his hair while trying to remember the location of his quest giver. It took him almost five minutes to remember.

"Oh yes it was the potion vendor I believe."

He quickly ran off to find her and get the quest. It took him a little bit longer than expected because her shop had been moved he walked up to her stall.

"Hello, do you have a quest for me?"

She smiled and nodded before he received a quest notification. It asked him to collect five ginseng herbs and he would receive either a serrated long-sword or a studded bo staff. He quickly accepted the quest and ran off to meet up with Argo. It took about ten minutes to get there.

Once he got there he looked around for her.

"It might have taken her a little longer because her quest was somewhere different."

He decided to sit down against a building and wait.

After waiting for thirty minutes he was starting to worry so he stood up. As he was about to start looking he saw something coming out of the shadows of the alley close to him.

"Sorry Toxic, I had to go around a group of guys and it took longer than I expected."

Toxic walked up to her and put her on his shoulders.

"Its fine I'm just glad you are safe. So what do you need for your quest?"

"Five Midnight Wolf pelts. They group around ginseng herbs during the night."

"Well that's convenient, I need five ginseng herbs for my quest."

With that they head off into the woods looking looking for the herbs and wolves. At first they weren't sure how to find them until they heard howling and quickly headed towards it.

Once they reached it they saw a pack of five, black wolves surrounding some glowing herbs near a pond.

"They look like they won't be easy. I really only have one idea." Toxic said.

"What would that be?" Argo asked.

"Do you have any poison knives?"

"Yes I bought some while I was out just in case."

Toxic took her and placed her on the ground.

"Okay hide in the shadows and I'm going to go in, while they are focused on me hit each one of them with a poison knife. I don't like it very much either, but people will start showing up to get the weapons as well and we can't waste time."

She lowered her head in submission and darted into the shadows. Toxic turned to the wolves who had finally noticed he was there.

Toxic slammed the staff onto the ground gaining their attention they slowly started walking towards him and slowly circled him.

He looked around and when the first wolf attacked he knocked it back. He did this for several minutes, playing defensively and allowing Argo poison each of them. Now that all of them were slowed he started fighting offensively.

While he was taking them out a larger wolf was sneaking up on Argo.

Once Toxic took the last one down he looked over at Argo and was about to tell her to come out when he noticed the large wolf that Argo was staring at. Quickly thinking he threw his staff up and kicked it at the wolf impaling it through a tree.

He walked over to Argo and helped her up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine."

She seemed a little upset about being a burden so he ruffled her hair.

"Hey perk up, we just started the game so of course your skills aren't very high."

She smiled at him and held up her arms to be picked up. He did and then he walked over to grab the ginseng root.

"There now we can get our weapons. Did we get anything else from the wolves aside from their pelts?"

She quickly checked their inventories as he ran towards the town.

"It seems like we got some Midnight Fangs, I don't think they were in the beta."

"They're probably smithing items, we can look into them later. Also we should look into are levels once we have a place to stay for the night."

She just tapped his head in acknowledgement.

"Where was your quest at?"

She pointed in the direction for him and they quickly came to a blacksmith. Toxic quickly handed him the five pelts and took the serrated daggers handing them to Argo before heading towards the potion vendor.

"Check and make sure they are like they were in the beta."

She did and read the stats and description.

"Yes they do. Caused enemies to bleed with each hit slowly stacking damage over time. Bleed last thirty seconds."

Toxic just nodded, that was good. He was worried the weapons would be different or just not as good. It took less than five minutes to reach the potion vendor who he handed the ginseng to and chose the staff.

He walked away twirling it around making sure it was like he remembered.

"Is it like the beta version?"

"The outside is, but the real thing that matters is,"

He grabbed both ends of the staff and pulled it apart turning it into two bastardized short swords.

"This. Yeah it looks like its exactly how I remember."

He put it together and looked at it for a moment. It looked like a normal staff on the outside aside from the 1 feet of studded metal on the end.

"Okay now that we have our weapons we can rest at an inn. I don't know if we need to sleep, but we can find out."

They walked slowly this time, not in as much of a rush anymore. As they walked he felt Argo rest her chin on his head.

"Toxic, why do you think Kayaba trapped everyone in their games?"

Toxic sighed and patted her on the head.

"Honestly I couldn't tell you. He might have a God Complex, maybe he has an inferiority complex, maybe its a combination of various things, or maybe he just felt like it. I have a hard time understanding others as it is, so understanding someone I've never really met is nigh impossible."

"Why did you bring me with you, you could do so much more without me?"

Toxic was slightly surprised by the question.

"It is more useful to have someone else to be your eyes and ears so I don't have to worry as much about those skills. Aside from that I could never live with myself if I left you on your on."

Argo didn't respond and within a few minutes they were at an inn. Toxic walked up to the lady at the counter.

"Hello, I need a two bed room."

"Okay, that will be 500 credits a night."

Toxic handed the money over and then headed to their room. Once inside he placed Argo on her bed.

"Okay let's look at our stats now."

They both looked at their stats screen, both of them were level three so they had 20 attribute points, but they both had a message on their screens.

For Toxic it said "Based on your real life mind and body you are given plus 30 points to Intelligence and plus 15 points to Willpower and Personality."

For Argo it said "Based on your real life mind and body you are given plus 30 points to Finesse and plus 15 points to Luck and Personality."

"Well that is interesting," Argo commented.

Toxic couldn't help but agree, normally you started out with 20 points in everything. Considering this he put 5 points into Athletics and Endurance and 10 points into Vitality.

Argo put 10 points into Athletics and 5 points into Endurance and Athletics.

Both of them just stood there allowing their bodies to adjust.

"That still feels really weird," Argo said after a few minutes.

Adding attribute points had even felt strange in the beta, but that had felt slightly different.

"What are we going to do tomorrow, Toxic?"

He sat down on his bed and thought about it, he had been so focused on today he hadn't put to much thought into it.

"We should spend the next two or three days leveling, depending on how well we do. After that you should spend a few days getting information and building up your reputation as an information broker. Hopefully people in the Town of Beginnings grabbed the Player Guides. While you do that I'll be out looking for materials to upgrade are weapons. They might not go past plus 5 like the Anneal Blade, but the effects make up for that."

She nodded and took off her cloak before laying down.

"Goodnight Toxic."

"Goodnight Argo."

* * *

**Four Days Later**

Toxic and Argo had spent the last three days leveling and acquiring items and after the third day Toxic felt like they were leveled enough so Argo could start building up her reputation as a info broker.

Toxic was currently in the woods killing different enemies looking for materials to upgrade Argo and his weapons. He was slightly worried about Argo since she didn't have much reputation so some idiots might bother her, but he'd just have to trust her.

As far as he knew in every one of the VRMMO's you could upgrade weapons by collecting certain materials and taking them to a smith. The catch was that it could fail and was more likely the higher you upgrade it. Also at these early levels you could only upgrade weapons to plus 5. That was why the Anneal Blade was so sought after, it was one of the very few weapons on the first level you could upgrade to plus 10. He didn't really want it though since it didn't have very much range and he preferred weapons such as staffs that required two hands, but not because of strength, but more for control purposes.

As he killed the last normal wolf in the area he decided to head into the city and check on Argo, they should be able to upgrade both of their weapons 3 times.

Since you could get a new skill every five levels, once Argo and himself had reached level five they both got the skill Tracking, which allowed you to get a general idea of quest objective locations and where your party members were.

Toxic quickly went through the menu and chose the Tracking skill causing his eyes to appear green to anyone who looked and he saw the world with a green glow. He saw where Argo was and it looked like it was near the cent of town so he slowly started walking there.

He preferred to walk with his bo staff behind his neck and put your arms over it, it just felt comfortable even if he never saw anyone walk like that, everyone always seemed so stiff and stressed. If he had Argo on his shoulders then he would just let it sit in her lap which got them a couple of weird looks, but he didn't care.

He walked into the center of town and saw Argo.

* * *

**With Argo A Few Minutes Earlier**

Argo had been seeing if anyone wanted to know something in the game for money and she had been doing fairly well when four players walked up to her.

They were the same guys from the Arc Net who had been trying to take her stuff. When they noticed who she was they all walked up to her.

"Well if it isn't the little rat girl. Where's your knight in shining armor? Did he leave you for a better girl?"

Argo had always been self conscious of her birth marks that looked like whiskers on her face. She had been happy that none of the SDS had bothered her about it.

"No he's out getting materials. He'll be back soon."

The minions seemed slightly scared by this, but the leader just snorted.

"Yeah right, you're probably just saying that because he left you all alone."

Argo looked really mad at this, Toxic wouldn't leave her, would he? She had been questioning why he would keep her around and she still didn't understand it.

"Now give us all of your stuff or else will force you to duel us."

Now Argo was a little worried until her eyes widened confusing all of them.

All of the punks were confused until the leader and the guy to his left felt arms around them and they looked to see who it was.

"How is it going guys?"

Yeah, it was Toxic himself.

"You treating Argo here nicely?"

All of them looked nervous now.

"Of course we were just talking, that's all," the leader said.

"Well that's good I hate for something to get started over a misunderstanding."

"Yeah that'd be bad. Come on guys we should get going."

With that they all started leaving. While they were leaving Toxic looked around at all the people, most of them looked ashamed of not helping. He couldn't really blame them though, they were just looking out for themselves.

Once they were gone he helped Argo up and ruffled her hair.

"You okay Argo?"

She nodded and looked a little sad. Toxic layed his staff down and knelt in front of her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He lifted her chin so she would look at him.

"I'm just scared that you're going to leave me or not come back one day."

"Come on I'm not going anywhere without you I promise. Now stiffen that upper lip little soldier."

**(Bonus points to anyone who can tell me who I got that from. I will give you all a hint. It is a song and is one of the few songs this artist has ever made that doesn't contain a single curse word.)**

He smiled at her and she smiled back. He stood up and placed her on his shoulders. He placed the staff in her lap before he started walking.

"Now with what we've collected we should be able to upgrade our weapons some. How much money did you manage to get today?"

"I got about 20,000 or so. I could have got a bit more, but those guys came around."

She sounded a little upset.

"Hey its fine, 20,000 is pretty good for your first day. I wasn't expecting to much since people like to know you can get the info before paying for it."

She leaned forward placing her chin on his head.

"If you say so."

"Oh yeah if you don't mind I've been meaning to ask you where you live Argo?"

Argo seemed slightly surprised by the question.

"I use to live in Japan, but three years ago my father had to move to Los Angeles for business. I've been living there ever since. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering because you look Asian, but you speak English very well."

"What about you Toxic, where do you live?"

"That is a very long story, I'll tell you the full version later, but the short version is I live in New York City."

"Oh okay, do all of SDS live there?"

"Yeah we just started living there recently. Isn't this the player blacksmith?"

Argo looked up at the store and nodded. Toxic ducked through the door and walked inside.

Right after they walked in a pink haired girl walked in from the back.

"Hello, welcome to Lisbeth's Blacksmith shop."

She looked up to the strange sight of Toxic with Argo on his shoulders.

"Hey," Argo decided to speak first.

They were all just kind of looking at each other for a moment.

"Yeah so what do you need?"

Toxic grabbed his staff and Argo handed him her daggers to place on the counter.

"We need both of these upgraded 3 times. Can you do it?"

"I could, but you'd be better off going to an NPC blacksmith at this point."

"No, we'd rather have you do it so that someone besides us can get some benefit from it even if it fails. If an NPC does it was pointless if it fails," Argo answered.

Lisbeth was surprised by this, but wasn't going to turn them down.

"Okay, but sorry in advance if it doesn't work. Do you have the materials?"

Toxic quickly went through his inventory to find what she needed and handed them to her.

"Will these be enough?"

She quickly looked over all of them before nodding.

"This should be plenty to upgrade both 3 times. Again apologies if it doesn't work."

Toxic and Argo just waved it off.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Toxic said.

Argo smiled at her and Lisbeth smiled back. Maybe she could do it.

She quickly got to work upgrading both of them three times each.

"I did it, amazing."

Toxic handed Argo her daggers and grabbed his staff and briefly twirled it before placing it back in Argo's lap.

"I knew you could. Now how much for the upgrades."

"I usually charge 2,000 per an upgrade, but since you had six done I'll only charge 10,000."

Toxic quickly grabbed some money from his inventory and handed it to her. She looked surprised when she looked inside.

"This is 15,000, you don't have to pay that much."

"It is fine. That's how much the other blacksmiths would have charged even if it failed so I owe at least that much."

Lisbeth looked like she wanted to argue, but Toxic wouldn't have it.

"Fine, I won't argue. Is that everything you need?"

"For now, we might need something later."

"Well you are welcome back anytime."

Toxic nodded before he walked out, before he was out Argo looked back at Lisbeth.

"Bye Liz see you later."

Argo waved at her and Liz waved back. Once they were gone Liz sighed.

"Well they were interesting and kind of nice."

* * *

**Three Days Later**

Toxic had told Argo to spread word of a meeting going on in the town of beginnings to take on the first floor boss that would be taking place in a week. While she was doing that he was heading over to Liz's. They had already gotten their weapons to plus 5 the day before.

He walked inside and saw her sitting at the counter. When she saw Toxic she stood up and smiled.

"Hey Toxic how are you? Where is Argo?"

"I'm fine and she's spreading word of the meeting to take on the first floor boss in a week. We were going to head out to the first city later today and were wondering if you wanted to come."

Liz thought about it for a moment.

"I think I'll stay around here for a little bit and then go to the second floor once the boss is cleared."

"Okay I was just going to offer. I'll see you later Liz be careful."

As he walked out she responded.

"You to and take care of Argo."

He just waved back at her and walked out into the street. He activated tracking and looked around for where Argo would be. He finally spotted a trail leading to roughly the center of town and started heading that way.

Once he arrived in the center of town he saw Argo talking to some people. He walked over to them.

Argo didn't notice Toxic so he picked her up and placed her on his shoulders surprising the people she was talking to and her.

"Oh hey Toxic, I was just talking to Klein here and his friends about the meeting."

Toxic looked at Klein who was around 21 and had red hair and some scruff on his face. He had three friends with him.

"Toxic? You wouldn't happen to be... no there's no way its the same one."

Toxic raised an eyebrow before realizing what he was talking about.

"Oh you're wondering if I'm Toxic the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins. Yes, yes I am."

All of the group were just starring. Klein finally spoke up.

"Wow, really. Man you are a fucking legend. Are you going to be helping take on the first boss?"

"That is the plan. Are you four coming to the meeting in a week?"

"We were debating it before, but knowing you're coming we definitely come now."

Klein held out his hand and Toxic shook it.

"Good, any help is welcomed. See you in a week Klein."

"Yeah you to."

With that they separated.

"Do you want to go ahead and head to the Town of Beginnings or wait till tomorrow?"

Argo leaned forward and thought about it.

"Let's go ahead and go there. We don't really have anything to do here anyways."

Toxic just shrugged and started walking that way, not in near as much of a hurry as last time.

"Toxic, do you have any siblings?"

Toxic seemed to go rigid at the question.

"No, except for Monkey who I consider a brother. I'll tell you the full story later, but just not now."

Argo just nodded and leaned forward resting.

After about thirty minutes he could tell she had fallen asleep causing him to smile slightly.

* * *

**1 Week Later - The Meeting**

The place where everyone was meeting was at what looked like an ancient amphitheater. Toxic had talked to someone he knew from the beta the day before named Diabel who had agreed to be the person overseeing the meeting.

As he sat on the top row of seats he looked around at the people. There was probably close to fifty people in the stands. He recognized a few of them such as Klein and his group, Agil a part time merchant he met in the beta, and Diabel who was at the very front standing in front of everyone.

Diabel was a fairly tall blue haired man at about 5'10" and was playing a shield and sword style. Agil was a tall man at about 6'2" and was one of the few black people he saw in the game, even though his appearance was intimidating he was usually pretty nice and tried to help new players.

"Welcome everyone, as some of the more experienced players we are obliged to show the others that this game is beatable. Is that agreeable?"

Soon everyone shouted yes.

"Good, my name is Diabel. A scouting party has discovered the lair of the boss room."

This got a lot of people talking.

"We need to defeat the boss to show people this game is beatable. Once we do more people will start helping out and we can clear the game much quicker."

Everyone in the audience agreed with him.

"Good then to start everyone divide into parties."

While everyone was getting into parties Argo was looking around and spotted someone by them self.

"Hey Toxic can she be in our party at least for this fight?"

Toxic looked over at this person before shrugging.

"Send her an invite."

Argo smiled before sending the person an invite. After a few seconds the person looked around and Argo waved at her. The mystery girl shyly waved back and accepted the invite.

"Good now that everyone is in their parties we..."

Before he could finish someone interrupted him.

"Just a second!"

Everyone looked up to see a guy with orange hair who quickly jumped down the seats to stand next to Diabel.

"My name is Kibaou. And before we do the boss fight I want to say something."

A lot of the people were wondering what he wanted to stay.

"Some of you here need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far."

**(Half the time and twice as many people so it evens out. If you never watched Sword Art Online then in SAO there was 10,000 people instead of 20,000 like I have and it took a month to have the meeting instead of two weeks.)**

"Kibaou are you talking about the beta testers?" Diabel asked.

"Of course I am. The day this all started the beta testers left us newbies here and took off to get all of the good loot. I think they should apologize and give up all of their loot to us."

At this Agil stood up from his spot and walked down to where Diabel and Kibaou were.

"So you are saying all of the beta testers should apologize and give up everything they have acquired since the beginning of the game? Did I leave anything out?"

Kibaou stared at him for a second before responding.

"No that is correct."

Agil turned to the crowd pulling out a small book.

"This is a player guide that was given out by the vendors all over the first level. The information in here was provided by beta testers. In fact the four beta testers who provided the most information to this are here right now. They are Diabel, Toxic, Argo, and myself," he said pointing at the respective people.

Everyone looked at all of the people who he pointed at. Diabel stepped up at this.

"On top of that this meeting was organized by Argo and Toxic up there."

Toxic just sat there and raised an eyebrow and Argo waved at everyone who looked up at them.

"Why would you do that?" Kibaou asked Toxic.

Toxic looked at him for a second before answering.

"Many reasons. It is easier to clear the game with more people, I want to clear this as soon as possible, and I don't really want unnecessary killing of people. Take your pick of the reason."

Kibaou just huffed and sat down on the stands. Agil quickly sat back down where he was.

Diabel held up a guide book.

"The guide also tells us about the first boss. His name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He has an axe and buckler. He has four health bars and once he hits red he changes to a talwar and his attack patterns change. He is also guarded by Ruin Kobold Sentinels."

He closed the book and put it away.

"Lastly, if you get an item you keep it, Exp goes to the party that kills the boss, and gold will be distributed equally. With that we will be leaving at 10 in the morning."

With that everyone got up to leave.

* * *

**The Following Morning**

Toxic and Argo were walking near the back of the group next to girl named Asuna. They only knew that because they were in the same party.

"Since we are a smaller party we are going to be taking down the sentinels. You and Argo are going to attack them after I parry their strikes so they are vulnerable."

Asuna nodded at the plan and they walked silently. It took them roughly an hour to clear through the dungeon and they finally reached the boss room.

They stopped at the boss door and Diabel turned to everyone.

"Okay everyone we know the plan. Parties A, B, and C are going to be the main fighters against the boss and D, E, and F take down the sentinels."

They all agreed and Diabel pushed the door open. The room lit up and Illfang the Kobold Lord jumped down into the center of the room and his minions materialized. Illfang was a giant, fat, red dog demon and his sentinels were smaller versions with armor.

"A, B, and C charge!" Diabel yelled.

A ran up and blocked his first swing while B and C attacked him.

"D, E, and F protect us from the sentinels."

Toxic parried two sentinels and Asuna and Argo destroyed them.

This continued for several minutes before his health went into the red and he threw away his axe and shield.

"I'll take him from here guys," Diabel said.

Toxic looked over and saw Diabel about to take the boss down. Normally he wouldn't have been worried because Diabel could pretty easily finish him.

That being if had a talwar, but he didn't. As Diabel got close to the boss Toxic realized this.

"Diabel that isn't a talwar, its a no-dachi."

Before Diabel could retreat he was hit once by the boss, halving his health. The boss was about to finish it when it got a sword to the shoulder courtesy of Toxic.

"Damn ugly mutt."

Toxic kicked the other half of his staff towards Illfang hitting his other shoulder and immobilizing his arms.

"Argo!"

"Got it."

Argo jumped up beside Toxic and he kicked right at her feet sending her flying towards the boss. She shot passed him taking his head off and killing him.

"You okay Argo?" Toxic asked slightly worried.

"Yeah I'm fine."

Toxic nodded and ran up to Diabel and helped him up.

"Thanks Toxic, you and Argo saved my life."

"Think nothing of it, but we should remember that enemies attack patterns and weapons could be changed."

Diabel nodded and everyone started cheering and the congratulation message that appeared.

Argo and Asuna came up and he ruffled their hair.

"Good work Argo and Asuna."

They both blushed slightly. Toxic picked Argo up and placed her on his shoulders, grabbing his staff and putting it back together.

He held his hand towards Asuna.

"It was good working with you Asuna."

"Working?"

She shook it before he answered.

"I don't work well in large groups. I can do more like this. You'll see me around though and remember if you get offered a position in a guild from a trustworthy person, accept."

**(If you are wondering why I didn't do the whole Asuna didn't notice the names thing it is very simple. It is fucking stupid. She was, in the first episodes at least, a complete and utter bad ass, if she didn't notice the names it would make sense in the later episodes, but early on it wouldn't.)**

She smiled at him as he turned around and started walking up the steps to the second floor. He kicked her out of the party as he walked.

She looked at little sad and Diabel noticed.

"Don't worry he'll be fine. Back in the beta he was soloing the front lines, and as far as I know he never died. Now at least he's got someone to watch his back."

Asuna was surprised to hear that.

"How far did you get?"

Agil walked up and pointed at Toxic as he walked through the door to the next floor.

"Because of that guy right there we managed to get to the fifth floor in 10 days."

Asuna looked at Diabel who just nodded.

"Don't worry about him, if anyone is going to complete this game, it'll be Toxic and Argo."

* * *

**A/N So how was it? I know already another chapter, what is this insanity? Well bad news time. The chapters will be a little bit slower because I have to go back to school Monday from Thanksgiving break. Don't worry I'll still be here, just will take a little more time.**

**Remember if you have any suggestions for any of the characters' special skills or powers feel free to post them and if I use them I'll give you credit.**

**If you have any other suggestions I am more than welcome to new ideas.**

**Until next time,**

**ToxicMeltdown Out.**


	5. Weight of a Thousand Demons

**A/N So, how is everyone liking the story so far? I hope fairly well. Anyways onto other subjects.**

**For those of you that are wondering many of the characters from SAO and AHO will be in this story, aside from the ones I have done so far ones that are likely are : Heathcliff, Yui, Silica, Leafa/Suguha, and several people from AHO whose name I cannot remember for the life of me.**

**Also I will try to have a boss fight for every floor, even if I don't really describe the floor itself. Most of the time I will probably just tell you to look up something in terms of how the boss looks, unless I can describe it well.**

**Remember suggestions for skills, powers, or anything else are welcomed and encouraged.**

**Now for the fifth chapter of SDS, A Thousand Miles.**

* * *

**Last Time**

Toxic and Argo saved Diabel and killed Illfang, before breaking Asuna from the party and opening the door to the second floor.

Once Toxic and Argo reached the top of the steps and stepped into the open air they looked around.

It appeared this level was a mountainous level with the mountains having flat grassy tops.

"It looks exactly how it did in the beta. Good I was worried it would look drastically different."

Argo nodded in agreement and Toxic started walking towards the town.

"Our move we created seems to work really well," Argo commented.

Toxic couldn't help but agree. They had been trying to create a move they could do together and after she had noticed how he would kick the swords his staff broke into she had the idea of him kicking her. It was a bit difficult to time, but they had soon found out speed increased damage.

"What did you get for the last attack bonus?"

Argo quickly opened the inventory and looked through it.

"Something called the Coat of Shadows. It looks like a really good coat that would last a while."

Toxic thought about it for a little bit before deciding.

"You should probably wear it, it sounds like it will help hiding."

She nodded and equipped it. It was a coat that was black as night and went down to her ankles.

Toxic looked behind at it.

"It looks good."

She blushed slightly and leaned forward resting.

"Its almost six now so we should just find somewhere to rest. I can find out any information tomorrow."

Toxic nodded in agreement, that would probably be the best thing to do.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Toxic had been walking around the town for a few hours now with nothing to do. He saw a couple of people, even Lisbeth, but had nothing really interesting to do. He could go out and get materials, but by the time he really got near enemies Argo would probably have some information.

He decided to go ahead and meet up with Argo, it couldn't me boring than just walking around.

He quickly activated tracking and found where she was. She was about a mile east. He starting walking that way.

It took about 10 minutes since he wasn't rushing. He saw Argo looking around and walked up to her.

"Hey Argo."

She looked at him and smiled.

"Hey Toxic."

"Did you get any information?"

He picked her up and placed her on his shoulders before she answered.

"Yes actually I did. apparently there is a way of getting a martial arts skill that is upgrade-able."

Toxic raised an eyebrow in wonder, that was interesting.

"Okay and how do you get it?"

She pointed towards a very tall mountain about 10 miles to the south.

"On top of that mountain there is a rock. If you break the rock you get the skill."

That was a stupid way of getting a skill, but hey who was he to argue.

"Getting to the top takes almost two whole days though."

That was bad. They would be fighting the next boss in two days. Toxic looked at the mountain before sighing.

"I guess we have no choice."

"What do you mean?"

"Do we have any warp crystals?"

"Yes I bought two in case of an emergency."

Toxic nodded and looked at the mountain for a few minutes before he started walking towards it.

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm going to scale the side."

You could literally feel how badly Argo wanted to slap him.

"Are you an idiot? If you fall you will probably die."

Toxic pulled apart his staff.

"That is why I am going to be using these."

Before she could actually slap him he continued.

"Look I don't like it either, but unless we want to let the others deal with the boss, or just not get the skill we are going to have to do this."

Argo really wanted to argue with him or think of something else, but from what she had heard there really wasn't much of a choice and just hung her head in defeat.

"Now hold on. I'm going to be trying to cut off as much time as possible."

She barely had enough time to get a firm grip before he started sprinting at full speed. Considering how he had put his attribute points it only took around 30 minutes to travel 10 miles. Not bad by real world standards.

Once they were finally there Toxic slowed down and stopped in front of the mountain.

Argo was looking a little sick a weakly smacked him.

"Don't do that again, I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"You'll be fine, you can't actually throw up."

"Doesn't make it feel any better."

Toxic couldn't argue against that and waited a few minutes for Argo to get back together.

"Okay I'm good now."

"Okay let's get this over with."

Toxic unequipped his cloak so it didn't restrict his movement before beginning to climb the mountainside with his short swords.

After traveling for ten minutes he looked down. He had only got about a tenth of the way.

"Man this is going to be awful."

* * *

**Halfway Up**

Toxic had finally gotten about halfway up the side of the mountain.

"Argo I've got two things to say."

"What is it?"

"If I fall use me to cushion you, you might have a chance to live that way."

Argo wanted to argue, but he continued before she could say anything.

"Second, this probably isn't the best time to mention it, but I am terrified of heights."

There was the feeling of Argo wanting to slap him again.

"Then why did you do this you idiot?"

"I couldn't really worry about it, I was in to much of a hurry. Hold on tightly, I'm going to unequip my shirt. Even if I won't die heat exhaustion still sucks."

Argo grabbed a hold of him tightly and he buried one sword into the rock deep so he could hang from it and open the menu. Once he had finally unequipped his shirt he sighed in relief.

"Man that feels better. You okay Argo?"

He didn't get a response.

"Hey, Argo, you okay?"

Again he didn't get a response what was wrong with...

Fuck. He had forgotten about the scars on his back and sides.

"Hey, Argo don't worry about those, their nothing."

He said that but all he got in response was a sniffle. He looked back at her and she was crying slightly.

"What happened?"

Toxic just sighed and started climbing again.

"I guess I might as well as tell you. If I die here it would be nice to have it off my shoulders."

She didn't say anything and he continued.

"When I was fourteen years old I was in my room with Monkey and Raven. I had just met Raven a few weeks before and she was over there because her mom and her were fighting. Well while we were in the room we started smelling a burning noise. My mom had always been a druggie so we didn't think anything of it at first."

Argo was now crying a little harder, but she kept quiet.

"Well soon after I walk out of my room to see that my mother had fallen asleep on the couch and had let her pipe fall to the floor in the kitchen. The kitchen and part of the living room were on fire. I run back into my room and quickly drag Monkey and Raven out of the house, tearing my shirt off to open the burning hot knob. I tell Monkey to call the fire department before running back in to get my brother and mother. I run into my brother's room and wake him up and drag him out. In the living room I wake my mother up and get her off the couch."

Toxic took a deep breath before continuing climbing and the story.

"My mother had a split second hesitation from being high on who knows what. In that split second the roof above us caved in. My brother saw this and pushed out of the way and the roof fell on top of him. Burning embers and wood hit me in the back. I stood up disoriented and dragged my mother out of there before almost passing out. I would have if Monkey and I didn't have to hold her from going back in."

Argo was not crying uncontrollably.

"The fire department arrived a few minutes later and take my mother, I passed out and woke up in the hospital. I found out my mother had no injuries at all. My mother tried to visit me in the hospital, I never talked to her. I stayed in town long enough to heal and attend my brother's funereal. After that I left town with Monkey and Raven whose mother had freaked out and kicked her out. I had quite a bit of money that my mother didn't know about from my grandparents. I got three tickets on a bus to the other side of the country. The rest is history. I started the SDS a few months later."

With that Toxic hefted them over the side of the mountain onto the flat top. Breathing heavily he just layed there. Argo continued to hug him from behind and cry.

"I'm so sorry I asked, I shouldn't have made you relive those memories."

Toxic turned over and slowly ran his fingers through her hair.

"It is fine. Those memories have long dulled and I wanted to tell you at some point anyways."

She looked at him and he just smiled.

"Now stiffen that upper lip little soldier."

**(Fuck it. Why not give them some weird phrase to share between themselves.)**

She nodded and stood up allowing him to stand up. He stood up and looked around.

"So where is this rock suppose to be at?"

Argo pointed over and Toxic looked over. he saw a fairly large boulder about 1000 yards from them.

"Oh okay. Hold on."

Before she could ask Toxic scooped her up and ran over to the rock. Quickly getting over there and setting her down.

"Stop doing that!"

Toxic just chuckled and sat down.

"I think I'm going to figure out how to break it tomorrow, I'm fucking tired."

Argo just shook her head in exasperation.

* * *

**Noon the Next Day**

Argo was sitting about 50 feet from the rock and had been watching Toxic all morning.

Ever since he had woken up at 6 he had been trying to break the stupid rock with no success. He had tried using the staff, the two swords it broke into, and his fucking hands and feet all with nothing more than maybe one crack, but that could just be him going insane from trying to break it.

"So are you just going to keep hitting it hoping it'll break?" Argo asked.

Toxic just sat down on the rock.

"I don't even know. I hate rocks."

Argo decided to not comment on that.

"Well we need to use the warp crystal before ten tomorrow so we can go with the others to fight the boss."

Toxic just nodded as he continued to look down at the rock.

* * *

**The Next Morning - 8:00 A.M.**

Argo was awakened by the sound of someone grunting.

**(Not that kind of grunting. I have no plans for Loli-chan.)**

She opened her eyes and looked around to see Toxic carrying the fucking rock.

"What in the hell are you doing?"

Toxic looked at her before continuing to walk towards the edge of the mountain.

"I figured that there was no way I was breaking it by hitting it so why not try throwing it off this fucking mountain."

Argo was literally twitching, if he wasn't holding the rock she would've slapped him.

Toxic was almost at the edge and lifted the rock up.

"Get the fuck out!"

And he threw it, of course it didn't go very far, but it was enough.

Toxic walked over and looked down before walking over to Argo and helping her up.

"Hopefully that worked I guess we will know in a few seconds."

Before Argo could commented a message appeared on his screen and he smiled.

"Don't tell me that shit worked?"

Toxic just showed her a message. Of course it fucking worked.

"Let's just go before I get an aneurysm."

Toxic chuckled before packing up the sleeping bags and equipping his cloak and shirt.

"Okay come on."

She just held her arms up not believing that had worked. He picked her up before pulling out a warp crystal.

"Let's go."

With that they disappeared.

* * *

**Urbus - Main City of Second Floor**

Toxic and Argo appeared in town and the crystal crumbled.

"So where were they meeting before heading to the boss?" Toxic asked.

"If I remember correctly it was at the fountain in the center of town."

Toxic nodded and started walking that way. Since they weren't leaving until 10 he didn't have to rush. As they approached the center of town he saw a large crowd of people. Once they got even closer Diabel, Agil, and Klein ran up to him.

"Are you insane?" Klein asked.

Toxic just raised an eyebrow not sure of what they were talking about.

"Everyone saw you climbing the mountain the other day," Diabel clarified.

Ah that's what they were talking about.

"So are you insane?" Agil asked again.

"I had to get something up there, but I couldn't take to long so I made a shorter path."

Everyone just looked at him like he was crazy and Argo just sighed leaning forward.

"Now shouldn't we be heading towards the boss?" Toxic asked.

Everyone quickly composed themselves before finally heading off.

* * *

**Boss Door**

It took them around 2 hours to get to the boss door. All they fought along the way were were ox based enemies that stood on two legs. Once they reached the door Diabel turned to the group.

"We are finally here. Toxic do you mind explaining what we know about this boss?"

Toxic who was previously at the back of the group sighed, but walked to the front anyways and turned to everyone.

"Okay everyone this bosses name is Baran the General Taurus. He is very similar to the other enemies on this level just larger. He wields a giant war hammer and has no other enemies in his room. Now for the plan of attack. How many of you have serrated weapons?"

Four people stepped forward including Klein.

"Okay good. Diabel, Agil, and myself will block his strikes and you four plus Argo will go in bleeding him. We are not going to overpower him so bleeding him will be best. Once he gets in red he goes in a furious rage and deals double damage. When this happens I want everyone with a shield to block his strike. While he is staggered I want Agil here to cave his fucking skull in. Got it?"

Everyone nodded in agreement and Toxic took Argo off his shoulders while Diabel opened the door to the boss room.

The inside was a barren landscape and the boss stood in the center of the room. He was huge, red skinned, and had two giant horns on his head. His hammer looked like it was literally made of bone.

"Okay Agil and Diabel let's go, serrated follow behind."

Agil, Toxic, and Diabel quickly ran towards the demon bull who flared his nostrils and took a wild swing at them. Agil slammed his hammer forward, Diabel used his shield, and Toxic used his staff to awkwardly parry the staggering blow. While the bull was off balance the five serrated wielders rushed in slashing at him a few times before dashing away quickly.

Toxic looked towards the bosses health bar that, because of the multiple bleed effects, was dropping very quickly.

They continued with this strategy until the boss was finally on its last health bar. Once it entered red the bleed almost completely stopped working.

"Okay everyone with a shield come on."

Several people quickly ran up holding their shields out to block the incoming strike. While the bull was swinging Toxic through both ends of his staff into the bull's main arm weakening the hit. The shield men blocked the strike staggering the bull.

"Agil take its fucking head off."

Agil ran up jumping into the air and slammed his hammer into the bull's head finishing it. Everyone was cheering when the congratulations message came up.

Toxic walked up to Agil who handed his staff to him.

"Good work man. The bonus item should be a hammer of sorts, you can put some good use to it."

Toxic shook Agil's hand before walking over to Klein and Argo. He ruffled her hair making her pout.

"Good work both of you."

Klein just waved it off and Argo smiled brightly. After he picked her up he started walking towards the stairs.

"See you all at the next boss."

They all said something similar as he and Argo walked to the third floor.

* * *

**Third Floor**

Toxic pushed open the door at the top and walked into the open air. Now this was a much different place from the last two floors.

It was a large desolate desert with nothing, but sand dunes and dust devils for miles with only one exception.

About five miles directly in front of them was a large town that was surrounding an Oasis.

Before heading that way Toxic unequipped his cloak and shirt and Argo took her cloak off due to the scorching heat. Even if it wouldn't actually hurt them, it definitely made things uncomfortable.

As Toxic started walking that way he made sure to watch out for anything that appeared even slightly suspicious.

He was level 13 and Argo was level 12. He figured that he would definitely be level 15 by the end of this dungeon, if not before the boss then for sure afterwards.

"Hey Toxic what power do you think I will get?"

It seemed that Argo was thinking about similar things.

"I have no idea honestly. We don't know if they are decided by are personalities of if they are completely random. If it is based off your personality you will most likely get something to make you stealthier or something for your personality."

Argo didn't comment and just rested her chin on his head. He wished he could just run, but it wasn't worth the excess of energy to run.

After walking for almost two miles he felt the ground starting to rumble. He looked around for the cause of this, but didn't see anything.

After nearly a minute of rumbling he realized what it was.

"Under us?"

He quickly jumped up as high as he could just barely doing so before a giant sand worm popped out of the ground where he had been.

It was unlikely that a very strong enemy would be this early in a level so he quickly took his staff apart and fell towards the worm dragging the twin swords along its body. Once he reached the ground he kicked away in case he hadn't killed it, but it was unnecessary because the monster fell over before dissipating.

"Good they aren't very strong, they just look very fearsome."

Some how through the entire thing Argo had managed to stay asleep.

"She must be exhausted. I better hurry."

He quickly scooped her in his arms so she wouldn't fall off. With that he rushed off towards the city.

* * *

**The Next Day - At an Inn**

Argo opened her eyes to a nice cool room. She looked around for a moment not seeing anyone and then looked at the floor. Toxic was sitting next to her bed. With his staff sitting straight up next to him.

He must have felt her move and he looked over. Quickly standing up.

"Are you okay, Argo?"

She just nodded and he sighed seemingly relieved.

"That is good. I was worried for a little while there."

She tried sitting up and he helped her get up.

"What happened? I remember feeling the ground shaking and then you saying something, but that's it."

"I think you're real body had a fever so the one in this world shut down. Once I realized you had passed out I rushed to this town to get you in a cold place."

She looked around again. They were in a inn of some kind and it was nice and cold. She looked back at him and smiled.

"Thank you, for everything Toxic."

He just grinned back and ruffled her hair.

"It isn't any trouble."

She just placed her hands on his and blushed slightly.

"Now you should probably go back to sleep. I don't think you should be leaving the room yet."

She wanted to argue, but she did still feel kind of weak.

"Okay, what are you going to do?"

Toxic responded by sitting where he had been previously.

"What are you doing?"

"You need someone here and I don't trust anyone more than myself. Now get some sleep."

She just nodded before laying back down. She wasn't sure how she would she go to sleep with Toxic so close, but she quickly fell into a long dreamless sleep.

* * *

**The Following Day - Noon**

Once Argo woke up from her sleep and Toxic checked on her they decided it would be best to go outside and let her get some information and he look for the other front liners.

So while Argo got information, Toxic looked around for the other front liners. He finally found out that they were at a nearby bar celebrating. He quickly headed that way coming to it within a few minutes and walked inside.

Once he walked inside a lot of people looked at him, but he chose to just ignore it.

He walked over to where Agil, Diabel, and Asuna sat. Once they noticed him Diabel stood up.

"Hey Toxic, where have you been these last two days?"

"I think Argo's real body was sick so I was watching over her in an inn."

Diabel instantly lost his calm exterior. He had rumors of people's real bodies affecting the SAO one, but none being directly told to him by anyone.

"It wasn't to big of a deal, but I think your bodies in SAO just shut down if your real ones get sick enough. That's what happened to Argo anyways."

"Oh and sorry for not letting you do much in the last boss fight Asuna, sometimes just works out that way."

As he said this he ruffled her hair causing her to put and try and fix it.

"Anyways when are we taking on the centipede demon?"

"We thought we would do it tomorrow, but if you need an extra day, we could always postpone," Diabel suggested.

"No Argo should be fine now and no one wants to take longer than absolutely necessary."

They all three nodded in agreement. They all wanted to get out of this world as soon as possible.

"Where is Klein at by the way?"

They all looked at him, bot getting the question for a second, before Agil spoke up.

"He went with his friends to go hunting."

Toxic nodded in understanding before asking another question.

"What level are all of you at?"

They seemed slightly surprised by the question, but answered anyways.

"I think Agil, Asuna, and Klein are level 11, as well as myself," Diabel said.

"What about you and Argo?" Asuna asked.

"I turned level 14 two days ago and Argo turned level 13. I guess I'll be the first to get those powers we are supposed to be getting."

They all just nodded. They had no idea what would happen and while powers would be nice, they didn't know the cost.

"Anyways I was just finding out when the boss fight was. Also, has Lisbeth moved up to this floor yet?"

"I saw her a couple of days ago. I think she has a small shop near the center of town," Agil responded.

Toxic nodded and headed towards the door.

"See you all tomorrow at the boss. Oh and all three of you send me a friend request and tell Klein to when you see him."

Toxic got outside and looked around before deciding to find Argo first. After activating his tracking skill he saw she was at the town center. Good that made things easier.

He was quickly at the center of town and he saw a crowd of people so he walked towards the crowd. Once people saw who he was they let him through. Once he got to the center he saw the leader of that group of guys talking to Argo.

* * *

**Minutes Earlier - Argo**

Argo had been getting information from some people at the center of town once she had started feeling drowsy. She was going to head to the inn when the leader of those thugs came p to her.

"Hey rat, where's tall, dark, and scary? Did he finally leave you for someone better or did you out live your use?" he taunted her.

She gritted her teeth, Toxic wouldn't leave her, he had said so himself.

"He won't leave me, he said so."

This made the guy laugh and smirk.

"So? He could have easily lied to you. I mean why would..."

He didn't get to finish because he felt someone behind him with something close to his throat. Argo's eyes had widened and the guy looked back.

Toxic had pulled apart his staff and was holding one of them very close to his throat.

"How are you feeling Argo? You still look a little drowsy," he said before looking at the guy.

"Oh and you, I'm pretty sure I made it clear not to bother Argo. Maybe I should make it clearer."

Toxic started pushing the sword towards the man's throat.

"Not really sure what will happen. Normally trying to hit someone would just knock them away, but I'm keeping that from happening. Let us find out."

Toxic started pushing it even harder once it got within 6 inches of the throat the sword and the guy started shaking.

"Oh that doesn't look good. Probably doesn't feel to good either, does it?"

The guy couldn't answer though because of a pressure on his wind pipe. Once the sword got within an inch of his throat Toxic stopped and just held it there.

"So what have we learned today? Don't. Fuck. With. Any. One. Close. To. Me."

He punctuated each word by slightly pushing on the sword making it just brush the throat before pulling it away allowing the man to fall down on his hands and knees.

"It was a pleasure talking to you. Let's not do it again."

With that the man quickly got up and ran away. Toxic looked back and smirked. The crowd quickly dispersed not wanting to anger Toxic anymore than he already was.

He walked up to Argo and picked her up in his arms.

"Are you okay?"

She just nodded laying her head against his chest.

"Do you think you can handle going by Lisbeth's before going back to the inn?"

She nodded and he started walking to where he had seen Lisbeth's when coming over here. It wasn't far from the town center so he walked inside making him sigh, since it felt much better in there.

"Hey Toxic. Is Argo okay?" Lisbeth asked.

"She just over did herself. Her real body is probably still recovering from being sick. It didn't help that some schmuck was bothering her."

Lisbeth noticed how he looked disgusted when he said that.

"I hope you told him to not bother her again."

She shivered slightly at the evil smirk he gave her.

"Of course, or next time I will rip his throat out."

Lisbeth found it best not to comment.

"So why are you here?"

"I need our weapons repaired."

She nodded and held her hands out. He took Argo's daggers and his staff and handed them to Lisbeth.

She inspected them for a few moments before nodding.

"It should only take a few minutes."

And it did, only taking five minutes before she handed them back to him. He put them in his inventory and took out 10,000 credits handing the bag back to her.

"This is to much."

He just waved it off and walked towards the door.

"See you later."

Argo softly waved at her and she waved back.

Toxic headed towards the inn.

"Hey Toxic?"

He looked down at Argo.

"Yes."

"You aren't going to leave me since I'm burdening you, are you?"

Toxic frowned and placed ad hand on her face.

"Of course not. The only way I'm being taken or leaving you is if I'm in a body bag."

She teared up and leaned into his chest.

"Please don't leave me alone. Please."

He just ran a hand through her hair.

"I won't."

They reached the inn and Toxic quickly took her up to the room and layed her down on the bed.

"Get some sleep Argo."

"What about the boss fight tomorrow?"

"I'll get someone to watch over you. You aren't going to be in this fight."

She looked like she wanted to argue, but he just looked at her before sitting beside the bed.

"Goodnight Argo."

She just smiled and layed her head down. Once he heard her breathing settle he sent a message to Klein asking him if he could watch over Argo during the boss fight tomorrow.

* * *

**The Next Morning **

Toxic opened the door and let Klein come in.

"Thanks for watching over her for me."

Klein just waved it off.

"Think nothing of it. Just make sure you get in some good hits on the boss for me."

Toxic chuckled and headed out.

"You got it."

He quickly headed to the meeting spot and met up with the front liners. With that they set off for the third floor boss.

**(I don't think it is necessary to say they cleared their way to the boss floor at this point.)**

Toxic walked up to the front of the group and turned to everyone.

"Okay everyone this is the third floor boss. He is a giant centipede named Night Crawler. He can spit out acid that causes durability to go down quickly and you lose nearly fourth of your health. The easiest way to take it down would be for our five fastest people to distract it and dodge the acid while the rest of us come from the sides and start taking off the legs. The only dangerous part of its body is the head so stay clear of that. Now I need the five fastest people up here now."

The five fastest quickly came to the front.

"I need you five to go in first and get its attention. Can you do that?"

They all nodded and he turned to the door pulling out his staff.

"Good, then lets crush this insect."

He pushed the door open. The room was identical to the outside being a desert. Night Crawler popped out of the ground.

"Go!"

The five quickly rushed to gain its attention. After 15 seconds he was sure it was focused on them.

"Okay everyone else start breaking or cutting off its legs."

They all rushed in with Toxic having Asuna, Agil, and Diabel near him. By the time the demon knew what they were doing it had lost 40 of its 200 legs. Once they got its health into the red bar Toxic realized something.

"We don't know if its rage mode ha s been changed be on guard!"

The centipede freaked out and quickly dug under ground. Toxic closed his eyes hoping to tell where it was. It was just enough for him to feel it before it came up and reared up to crush someone.

He threw one end of the staff at the centipede sticking into its soft underbelly making it flinch, giving him enough time to run up and slice up through its stomach, killing it. He grabbed his sword before it hit the ground.

Everyone cheered at the congratulations message. Toxic walked up to Asuna, Agil, and Diabel.

"That was close. We need to remember to think about what the rage modes will be from now on," he commented.

They all nodded in agreement.

"Well I need to go check on Argo. We should probably take a week off and let everyone unlock their powers so that we don't get any nasty surprises."

"That would probably be best," Diabel agreed.

"Yeah, well anyways I better get going."

They all said bye as he walked up the stair pushing open the door and walking outside. This floor appeared to be a giant forest, at least it wasn't scorching like the last level.

He could see a town about a mile down the road so he quickly headed that way. It took him about ten minutes to reap the warp location and teleport to floor 3. It took him another five to reach the inn.

Once he got to their room he opened the door and walked in.

He was waiting for a greeting until he opened his eyes and saw Klein on the ground tied up.

He quickly got down and pulled out the gag and cut of the bindings.

"Klein where is Argo?"

"I was sitting on the other bed when the door suddenly burst in and four guys came in two of them grabbed me and a third tied me up while the fourth one tied Argo up and picked her up. Before they left they said to send their regards to you."

Toxic knew exactly who he was talking about. He quickly stood up and rushed to the door.

"Wait Toxic. You shouldn't go alone."

"You go to the fourth floor and get the others, you can follow with tracking, I know Asuna has it."

Klein wanted to argue but he was already gone.

Toxic quickly rushed out of the inn and activated tracking. He followed the trail which led out of the town. He traveled ten miles in a little over half an hour before coming to four people surrounding what looked like someone laying on the ground.

* * *

**20 Minutes Earlier - Argo**

Argo awoke to the sounds of people laughing. She looked around and saw the four guys who kept messing with her. Once they noticed she was awake they walked over to her.

"Oh the little rat is awake, and her knight in shining armor is nowhere to be found."

She realized that they must have taken her while she was weak. She just hoped Toxic would be there soon.

"Oh and look at what we can do now."

They all held their hands out. Balls formed inside of them each one a different element : wind, water, earth, and fire.

"We've been power leveling trying to get to 15 and we finally did it a few hours we an get you back for all the trouble you've caused us."

The leader formed a whip of fire and whipped her with it. She screamed in pain.

**(Remember there are some differences between this world and the original SAO, one of those being you do feel pain.)**

"Ha ha listen to that little bitch scream. Don't worry we will make you feel good before we kill you."

Argo shivered at the thought of these pigs raping her.

They continued to beat her for ten minutes with whips of fire, pelting with rocks, and being sliced by wind. Whenever she looked like she might pass out the water user would cover her in freezing water.

This went on for ten minutes before they stopped and the leader spoke up.

"Well I guess it is time to move onto the main event. Take her clothes off."

Of course they didn't ever get to do that.

* * *

**Right When the Leader Said That - Toxic**

Toxic felt a deep blinding hate when he heard them say that, but before he could do anything it appeared as if everything around him had frozen. Before he could look around something started materializing in front of him. Once it was fully formed Toxic's eyes widened.

"Kayaba Akihiko?"

"Yes I am Kayaba Akihiko. And you, Toxic, are in quite the predicament. You want to save Argo over there, but you can't take on four elemental users. You might be able to take two out at best. And your friends won't be here anytime soon. What will you do? You don't know what your power is and even if you did you probably couldn't control it. So I ask you, what will you do?"

Toxic's eyes widened in realization. Kayaba had a point. Even if he was stronger than them normally, their powers more than made up for it. Before Toxic could say anything Kayaba continued.

"Would you do anything to save her?"

Toxic thought about the short time he had known her. He had shared information with her he had never spoken about before. He had grown accustomed to her, he wasn't even sure he could keep his sanity without her.

"I will do any and everything if it would save her."

Kayaba smirked triumphantly.

"That was what I had hoped you would say."

* * *

**Ten Minutes Later for Toxic**

The reason they never got to do that was because Toxic appeared kneeling beside Argo.

He reached down and stroked her whisker marks.

"I'm sorry I took so long Argo, but I am here now."

He took off his coat and wrapped her in it before stroking her face one more time.

The four people hadn't moved, they were shocked at how quickly he had moved, none of them had even felt or caught the briefest glimpse of him.

Toxic stood up and looked at all of them. His eyes now a deep crimson.

"I warned you not to mess with her. Now you will pay."

"Very funny we all have powers now there is no way you can take us. And after we are done with you, we are going to take are sweet time exploring her."

They all quickly shot different projectiles at him. He swiped his hand through the air blocking them.

"Aerokinesis, Terrakinesis, Hydrokinesis, and Pyrokinesis, cute."

You could feel the anger and pure hatred coming off of him.

"Now I will paint the town with you blood."

* * *

**With Klein, Agil, Asuna, and Diabel - Town Center of Floor 3**

They had all just come through the warp crystal. It had taken longer to find them than Klein would have liked, he just hoped Toxic was okay. Asuna activated tracking and was about to start following the trail when they heard the most horrifying thing of their lives.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"

**"YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"**

* * *

**A/N What has Toxic gotten into? What was he offered from Kayaba Akihiko? What did he do to the four thugs? Find out all of this and more next time.**

**If anyone has any suggestions for powers, special skills, or what race someone could be feel free to tell me. If you have suggestions for anything else also feel free to post it.**

**Until next time,**

**ToxicMeltdown Out.**


	6. The Devil's Right Hand

**A/N So how was the last chapter? Did you like it? Anyways, if this goes up when I think it will be a few days after the last chapter, sadly I don't have a lot of time to write because of school. **

**Also if you have suggestions on anyone's powers (except for Toxic), special skills, or race don't feel afraid to tell me. The worst I could do is say I don't think it'll work. **

**Now on to chapter 6, The Devil's Right Hand.**

* * *

**Last Time**

Last time Toxic had been searching for Argo in the desert, when he came upon her he realized he wouldn't be able to fight the four guys since they had powers and he had no idea how to use his.

Kayaba decided to show up at this time and offer Toxic power. We do not know the conditions or the power, but Toxic accepted none the less.

He soon appeared kneeling in front of Argo, none of the four had even caught a glimpse of him moving, and after wrapping her in his coat turned to all of them with an evil smile.

We left off with Klein, Asuna, Agil, and Diabel appearing through the warp point at the main town in floor three and hearing something quite disturbing.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

**"YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"**

This is where we left off.

The group ran towards the voices which were near the inn Toxic and Argo had been at. When they arrived they saw the man they had heard had been bothering Argo being held against a wall of the inn by someone letting off a truly terrifying aura.

The walls around them were painted with blood. In all of the MMO's losing a limb was no big deal since it grew back in seconds and if it was a clean cut you could attach your limb instantly. This being said everything still hurt, cutting through someone's chest was very difficult since if you had that strength you would most likely kill the person before they could really feel anything, and there was blood in all of the games and it didn't disappear with the person.

That being said, no one had any idea how there was this much blood. Killing three people would never generate this much blood.

They were brought back to reality by the man screaming. The terrifying man holding him was slowly pushing his finger towards his chest. In real life this wouldn't be a big deal, but here it was. In towns you normally couldn't do much more than try to hit someone which would send them flying, but no one had any idea what would happen if you forced past the it and actually hurt someone.

By the way the man was screaming they didn't think it felt to good even if his health wasn't moving. What was really scary was that the dark man's finger had deep cuts appearing in it, but they didn't appear to be affecting him.

They were about to move to stop it, but the dark man spoke.

**"Don't come near."**

They all stopped, that voice it sounded so familiar.

**"Don't dare try to save him. He deserves death."**

Before they could even think about stopping him, he pushed his hand forward into the man's chest which started splitting apart. The man was now screaming the most blood curdling scream any of them had heard.

**"Now. DIE!"**

Cracks appeared all over the man's body and for a moment he didn't make a noise. The next moment he exploded sending waves of blood everywhere.

Asuna put her hands over her face and the others looked sick and ready to puke.

"Why would you do something like that?" Agil asked.

The man started chuckling and leaned forward for a moment his intense aura seemed to escalate and the next moment his entire aura dissipated.

As he turned to them he spoke.

"Didn't I make it clear not to mess with Argo?"

They all thought the same thing, but only Klein could say it.

"Toxic? Why would you do that?"

"Threatening and hurting me, both physically and mentally, is one thing. I can take whatever someone gives me, but I do not take kindly to anyone hurting what is mine. If you do I will repay it ten fold. I will try and allow you to live, but I can only allow so much. Once you cross my line, I will slaughter you like a pig. Now I must be going. I wish to take Argo to the next floor and make sure she is okay."

He walked pass them as they all just stood there. He was about to disappear around the corner when he stopped.

"And Klein?"

Klein flinched slightly.

"Yes?"

"Don't worry. I do not blame you. I know no one would have be able to fight back in your case."

Klein sighed and just nodded. With that Toxic walked towards the inn and inside. He rushed up the stair into his room.

As soon as he walked in he saw Argo's eyes widen. This confused him until he realized he still was covered in blood. He quickly closed his eyes and the blood seemed to come off his clothes and go into the bathroom.

Argo looked like she wanted to ask a question, but Toxic cut her off.

"I'll tell you later, I promise, but we need to go to the next floor first.

She nodded and he walked up to her scooping her up in his arms. Luckily he had gotten a second set of clothing made for both of them the other day so she had decent clothes on.

"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble."

Toxic looked down at her.

"Don't say such things. The fact that I helped you shows that I do not mind. I care deeply for you Argo and will do all I can to help you."

She just nodded and leaned her head into his chest. As he walked he ran his hand through her hair. He smiled when he felt her breathing slow and that she was asleep.

* * *

**Real World - Kaizer Corps **

Kaizer had been having a very insane month. When he had sent Toxic and his group he had been only slightly worried sense Toxic had quickly showed his prowess. He had been quite pleased with his members, but Toxic again showed how skilled he was. He had slaughtered and killed up to the fifth boss like they were nothing. While some did die during the beta Toxic did not die once, even when learning the game.

He had been even more impressed when he had learned of his friendship with the girl nicknamed Argo. He had learned that she was the daughter of a very high ranking member of Razor Inc. He hadn't bothered telling Toxic since he did not think it concerned Toxic. Kaizer was not stupid, he did not think the man was someone to hate. The man was more than likely earning a living in a way he enjoyed, but it did not hurt to have a way to be near to him.

Toxic had taken his hopes and made them much more than realities. He knew he would be able to overtake the Arc Net with Toxic's help. Once he had learned of the fact that all of the people inside of the new MMO's were trapped until the games were completed he didn't think Toxic would be able to do much.

This was until a new website appeared on the internet. This website showed views over every level of the games that had been visited. At first various governments had debated taking the website down, but they soon realized everyone would rebel if they could not know what was happening to their friends and family.

Once he had heard of this site he had hoped Toxic would be able to help some with this, but since Toxic was not aware of the cameras he did not hope for much. But Toxic had been able to inspire many people as well as seem like a lone wolf with his little girl he would slaughter thousands to protect. Every time anyone saw him on camera they always payed close attention because whether he come off as inspiring, tactical, charming, intimidating, or something else, he always commanded attention.

What had really drawn his attention was what had occurred tonight. As soon as he had heard about what was going on with Argo he had turned on the website and found the camera torturing her. He was well aware of how Toxic felt about others hurting those close to him do he knew Toxic would get revenge. Once he saw Toxic arrive he, along with many others wondered how he would do so. Toxic had gotten powers, but he hadn't been able to discover them so he wouldn't be able to fight them even with his superior skills.

When Kayaba appeared many were surprised and interested, but the sound had been muted so no one could tell what they were saying. Within about 10 minutes they finished talking and the sound came on with them hearing Toxic saying "I accept" and Kayaba dissipated. A dark aura seemed to surround him and he looked simply terrifying.

Everyone knew it was going to be bad for those four when Toxic seemingly appeared in front of Argo with a sad smile and wrapped his coat around her. This feeling was even more reinforced when he stood up and gave them a sinister look.

This being said, none had expected the slaughter that commenced. They had ran towards town hoping to be saved and he toyed with them the entire way even while holding Argo. At some point when they had run out of healing items he actually tossed them more. Once they neared town he had run off and all of them sighed happily, thinking he had left for some reason, but he actually was just placing Argo in the inn so she wouldn't have to watch.

They had just gotten into town and he reappeared. He had said he would give the minions a quick death if they only stood still. One of them had actually taken the offer and Toxic placed both his hands on the man's face. The man soon started shaking and soon fell over dead and something went inside of Toxic.

He quickly repeated with the other two, who didn't go so quietly and screamed the entire time before repeating the same process as their fallen comrade.

But their deaths would be called tame when compared to the leader's. Toxic spent 10 minutes torturing and toying with the man before he began the slow process of making the man's chest cave in.

The four others soon arrived and tried to talk to him not knowing who it was, but he soon pushed forward, even those his hand was splitting apart, and shot into the man's chest. For a brief moment everyone had no idea what had happened, until the man exploded sending blood everywhere.

The most astonishing part that had happened through all of this was that Toxic had again surprised him. Once he had seen were things were going Kaizer had assumed this would put Toxic into a bad light that was until he saw that most people agreed with his actions, even if they didn't think they could ever do it with the glee and finesse he had managed.

Aside from this, ever since this all began he had several computer experts trying to find a way to send a message to Toxic inside of the game. They should be able to soon, even if they wouldn't be able to do it often.

Outside of his offices he had been making sure anyone and everyone knew who Toxic fought for. He had even said that if they thought they could get to him in game by getting their own players to capture his friends they were insane. All in all Toxic was a calm and understanding individual, but he could turn into a blood thirsty warrior at the mere attempt at hurting who and what he cared for.

As it stood Toxic was the single most liked person on the internet as it was. His charm, intellect, and calm attitude mixed with how quickly he could go from laid back to hardened warrior or bloodthirsty demon made people like him. It also didn't hurt that carrying around Argo made him seem very caring and like an older brother to her. Everyone loved the striving older brother who would do anything for their sister.

Now all he had to do was figure out what to tell Toxic in the message.

* * *

**The Next Day - 4th Floor**

Toxic had taken Argo up to the 4th floor and to an inn. He told her to get some rest and then he would tell her about how he took the blood off his clothes.

So when she finally woke up and he helped her sit up she sat there waiting for an explanation. When Toxic saw this he sighed and sat down on the bed.

"Last night I returned to the inn to find that you had been kidnapped. After I told Klein to go get back up I headed towards where they had taken you. I realized when I arrived that they had all gained powers and that I couldn't match them even with my superior skills. While I was trying to think of something to do Kayaba Akihiko appeared and spoke to me. He offered the power to protect and save you. I accepted."

Argo looked upset at that, but Toxic continued.

"While I slaughtered and played with them something clicked in my head and a realized what my power was."

Toxic closed his eyes confusing Argo. He held his hands out and concentrated causing tiny orbs of fire, water, earth, and wind to appear in the air.

"How do you have those?" she asked.

He opened his eyes allowing them to dissipate.

"I am able to take someone's powers and use them. I don't know if I can without killing them and it take more out of me to use their powers."

Argo just stared at him for a moment. She soon crawled over to him and hugged him.

"Was it worth making a deal with Kayaba?"

Toxic hugged her back and ran a hand through her hair.

"Sometimes in life you will have to make a deal with the devil in order to protect your angel."

* * *

**A Few Hours Later**

After making sure that Argo was okay to be moving around he picked her up and they headed out.

Once they were outside he looked around.

"So, what should we do first?"

Argo looked around and thought about it.

Before she could speak Toxic started going through the inventory.

"I just remembered I have something for you."

He tapped on something and what looked like twin pincers came out.

"Here you go. I got them from the boss the other day. They don't have serrated damage, but they do have acid that corrodes armor and does damage over time."

She looked at them for a moment before hugging his head. **(I realize that sounds weird, but ... reasons.)**

"How about we go get my staff repaired and see if we can upgrade those? Plus boss weapons can usually be upgraded 10 times."

"Okay, but where is Lisbeth?"

Toxic thought about it for a moment. He really had no idea.

"I guess we can find one of the others and ask them."

He scrolled through the menu and activated tracking on Agil and started heading that way. As they walked Argo leaned forward and rested.

"Toxic does it bother you to carry me around?"

The question surprised him slightly.

"Not at all. You don't weigh much, you can keep watch for me, it is faster, and it is nice at times to know that you have someone with you. Why do you ask?"

"It would seem like I slow you down."

"I would rather you be your size, I mean I don't want to carry around someone Asuna's size. That just sounds uncomfortable."

Argo giggled slightly as they came to the bar where everyone was. **(Yes I will be using bars until they get a base of operations.)**

He deactivated tracking before walking in and seeing Agil and the group. They noticed him as he walked over and Asuna stood up.

"Argo, are you okay?"

Asuna took Argo off his shoulders and as she bothered her Toxic turned to the others.

"So when is the next boss fight going to be?"

"We decided to follow your advice and wait for most of the people to get used to their powers," Diabel responded.

"Okay and do any of you know where Lisbeth is?"

"She followed us shortly after we defeated the boss and set up shop near the center of town again," Agil responded.

"Thanks I guess I'll see you all at the next fight. Argo are you ready?"

As soon as he asked the question she tugged on his pant's leg. He picked her up and waved at the group before leaving.

**(Skipping to Lisbeth's)**

"Hello Toxic an Argo how are you?" Lisbeth asked them once they walked in.

"We're fine. I just need my weapon repaired and Argo needs her new one upgraded."

He handed her the weapons. She quickly examined them before setting them down.

"What materials do you have?"

Toxic opened up that section of the inventory and let her see it. She was surprised by how many materials he had, but didn't comment on it.

"I can probably upgrade it six times. Do you want me to?"

"Go ahead."

She nodded and took the materials she needed before getting to work. She quickly repaired his first before working on Argo's pincers. After ten minutes she had upgraded it 5 times since she had failed once. She handed them back their weapons and Toxic took some money out.

"Don't worry about it. It is going to fail sometimes no matter what."

He handed her the money before heading towards the door.

"See you later Lisbeth."

She waved back at Argo as they walked out. Of course he gave her to much, again.

Once Toxic and Argo were outside.

"Okay now we should start getting you leveled up so you can discover your powers."

As they walked towards the forest Toxic put his staff away confusing Argo.

"Why did you put your weapon away?"

"I want to get better with my powers. If I don't train them they could become a liability later on."

That made sense. Once they got deeper in the woods he took her off his shoulders.

"Okay stay in the shadows behind me and either wait for an opportunity to strike or kill any enemies once their health is low."

She nodded and disappeared into the bushes. Once enemies started appearing Toxic quickly saw that the main enemies of this level were wolves, but that couldn't be right those were pretty common in the first level.

Oh well he couldn't think about it at the moment. He sent razor winds at one group and then sent a combination of water and earth to become mud and slow them down.

"Argo strike."

Argo came from under the brush and started slicing through the wolves. Within a minute the pack of 12 wolves was reduced to nothing. Once she was done she walked up to him and he ruffled her hair.

"Good work."

She just smiled and went back into the bushes. They did this for about two more hours.

"Okay we'll go ahead and head back. You got up to 14 and we can get you to 15 tomorrow."

She nodded and he picked her up before heading back to the inn.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Argo and Toxic had been doing the same thing as the previous day and it had been going fine until about 1 in the afternoon.

Argo had just became level 15 not 30 minutes before, since she wasn't sure how to use them or even what they were they decided to fight for a couple more hours and see what happens.

So as Argo sliced through a rather large group of wolves with Toxic protecting her from any wolves who tried to blind side her, neither of them noticed something lurking in the bushes just outside of the small clearing they were in. So when Argo turned around to see a giant panther in her face she was very surprised.

Toxic turned to Argo screaming and was about to run in and help her when everything near her started being sliced to pieces.

"Argo calm down!"

He tried yelling at her, but she just continued kneeling down and screaming as waves of power seemed to destroy anything near her.

"Damn it."

He quickly focused on wind manipulation and had it swirl around his skin. With that he slowly walked towards her.

As he walked tiny cuts appeared all over his body, but he just ignored them. Once he got within 5 feet the cuts started getting bigger and deeper.

Once he was finally close enough he reached down and pulled her close to him ignoring the gashes in his body.

"Shh, everything is fine. Calm down my little Argo. No one will hurt you while I'm around."

She started to calm down as he ran a hand through her hair.

After a few minutes she finally had calmed down completely and leaned back from him gasping at what she saw.

Toxic's skin was mangled and torn some of it barely hanging on and some large chunks had been torn off.

"It's a good thing I protected myself with wind isn't it."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm so, so sorry Toxic."

Toxic just hugged her again.

"Shh, shh none of that. I'll live. I'm just glad you are okay now."

She sniffled and nodded into his chest.

"Now I'll change and we can head back to the inn."

She pulled away and he quickly selected his spare clothes and equipped them before scooping her up and started walking.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" she responded.

"I'll be fine, but I want to know what happened back there."

"When I saw that panther about to attack me something just clicked and waves of power seemed to start releasing from me, but I couldn't control it so it started overloading everything."

Toxic nodded in understanding. It would make sense that some people would not be able to control their powers at first. That was one of the reasons why he had wanted a week for the next boss fight. These powers were such a large variable because they had no solid information about them.

"Okay, tomorrow we can test it out and see what you can really do with it."

"Okay, I'm going to sleep now. I am really tired from today."

She leaned into his chest and almost immediately went to sleep. Toxic just smiled and kept walking towards the inn.

"I wonder what powers the others have developed?"

**(I had originally planned on putting a section after this about the others' powers, but I haven't got all of them yet. So far I have powers for Monkey, Raven, and Ares so I need powers for Angel, Muse, and Death. If anyone has any suggestions for them feel free to tell me and if I use them I'll give you credit.)**

* * *

**Following Day - Noon**

Toxic and Argo were in a clearing in the forest that they had cleared of monsters so they wouldn't be bothered while training.

"Okay now what did it feel like when the power was coming off of you yesterday?" Toxic asked her.

"It felt like waves of energy were coming off all over my body, but they were more like blades in that they had a sharp edge to them."

Toxic nodded and thought about it for a moment.

"Okay. Close your eyes and look for that power again."

She nodded slightly apprehensive at the idea, but trusted Toxic. After nearly a minute of no noise from either of them she spoke up.

"I feel it. Now what do I do?"

"Hold out your hand and try pushing a wave of that energy out. Aim for that tree."

She nodded and held her hand towards the tree.

"Remember to try and hit only the tree."

She didn't respond, after a few seconds there was distortion in the air and a large gash appeared in the tree... and in the trees 5 feet to the left and right of it.

"Hmm, it looks like we will have to work on your precision. Now try and make the wave as wide as possible."

She nodded before trying again. This time she hit about 15 feet to the left and right of the tree.

"Okay so about 30 feet wide. Not bad at all. Now let us test range."

After several tests **(no fucking point in putting each one) **they were fairly sure of the range.

"So a average sized wave can go about 80 yards without losing any power. If you compressed the wave it would most likely dramatically increase the range. Now one more thing before we finish for today. I want to see how many average sized waves in a row without taking a break or losing power. You will have to fire at me for this so I can tell if the strength lowers."

She looked like she wanted to argue, but he cut her off.

"No arguing. We already know that I can take it with the wind barrier now do it."

She just nodded and started shooting wave after wave. She finally stopped at almost 20.

"It seems like you can keep up the same power for about 12 and don't need a break until 20. Good."

She breathed heavily and smiled at the praise.

"I'm sorry I wasted your day training me."

"Trust me when I say we did not waste it I spent the time doing something. Now before we leave I have been doing something this entire time we were here. I am going to try and copy your powers, but when I do I want you to run at least 100 yards away very quickly. And if you feel any kind of pain from me copying your powers tell me."

He walked up to her and he placed his hands on the side of her head.

"Ready?"

She nodded and he began copying her powers. It took longer since he didn't want to hurt her, but after five minutes he lowered his hands and breathed deeply.

"Run."

She immediately took off at his command and once she was far enough he let loose the power.

When Argo looked back the ground seemed to move away from under him and he fell into a pit. She quickly ran back to look inside. When she tried to look inside she quickly moved from the power. It seemed like the pit was 40 feet deep and at least 15 feet in diameter.

"So that is what he had been doing this entire time."

After about 10 minutes she felt the power disappear and the ground started raising inside the pit. Once it was completely filled up she saw Toxic kneeling and breathing heavily. After a minute or so he stood up.

She walked up to him worry evident on her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He smiled and ruffled her hair.

"Of course. Just tired, copying your power and moving all that earth took a lot out of me. Do you mind walking?"

She nodded and he took her hand so they could walk back to the town.

* * *

**Five Days Later - Boss Fight Day**

Toxic and Argo spent two more days training and hunting and then Argo gathered information in town while Toxic talked to the other front liners about strategy.

He had found out that Klein got pyrokinesis, Agil got terrakinesis as well as an odd form of metal manipulation, Asuna had electrokinesis, and Diabel had gained telekinesis. Since he didn't want anyone other than Argo knowing about his power he just told them that his power still was unknown, but he had gotten good enough at copying powers that as long as he was near someone he could copy them, it just took about twice as long. Currently it took about 2 minutes while touching someone and 4 if he was near them.

Also there were other people in the front liners who had gained things such as Pathokinesis or being able to control other's emotions to an extent, being able to generate an Energy Shield to protect themselves, Preflex or being able to read people and see what they will do (It is an enhancement so it is permanently active. Enhancements work for Toxic, but not as well as they would for the original owner.) , Illusion Casting which allows the user to cast an illusion over one or more of the opponent's senses, and Levitation which so far was the least taxing ability by far.

Toxic believed there were many more powers than just those, but they hadn't heard of anymore yet.

So far his powers consisted of : Pyrokinesis, Terrakinesis, Hydrokinesis, Aerokinesis, Electrokinesis, Telekinesis, Metal Manipulation (not really complete since you can only control the metal around you and can't create it like the elemental manipulations), and Energy Shield.

He didn't want to get to many powers at once because he wasn't sure of the limits of his power. He knew that he could use up to three powers at once and that so far he could copy and power, but that was really about it.

**(No one will ever understand how many powers there are out there. I could write whole chapters just describing them. So if you ever think I have to many know that just in terms of Mental Powers there are about 784 at least, for Personal Physical Powers there are at least 2464, for Enhancements there are at least 600, for Manipulations there are about 1408 at least, and for Almighty Powers there are at least 464. Even taking into account some of those are doubles or even triples because of being in different categories that is still a ridiculous amount of powers.)**

Now they were at the boss door and Toxic was ready to explain the boss fight.

"Okay everyone this boss's name is Pantera the Lacerator who is a giant white panther. Its main strength is speed. It is extremely fast and this is not helped by the fact that there are also half a dozen wolves helping him. Luckily they do not respawn, but that means they will be much more difficult than a normal wolf. As soon as we get in I want all of the earth and water manipulators to turn the ground into mud to slow down Pantera. After that you should back up and rest since that will take a lot out of you."

Toxic paused to make sure everyone was on the same page before continuing.

"After that I want anyone with fire manipulation to take out the bosses minions. While they are focused on them I want anyone with Telekinesis to to try and keep the boss pinned down as much as possible. While the boss is pinned down I want anyone left to be attacking it as much as possible. When it hits red it will most likely break out of anything affecting it and at least double in speed. When this happens I want everyone to focus in on it trying to take it down. If this boss gets moving it will be nearly impossible to take it down even for our fastest people. Does everyone understand?"

They all either nodded or answered before Toxic continued.

"Good then I need the earth and water manipulators right behind me. Agil you lead them. Klein lead the fire manipulators and Diabel you lead the anyone with Telekinesis."

They all nodded and got into formation. Toxic set Argo down beside him before pushing the door open. Like most boss rooms this was just a wide open room with dirt floor.

As soon as Toxic saw the boss and minions come out of the shadows on the other side of the room he ordered the others.

"Turn the floor to mud now!"

The Hydrokinetics and Terrakinetics all began turning the ground into mud, Toxic helping them without them knowing, and within seconds the entire floor was muddy.

"Good. Agil and your group fall back and rest. Klein you and your group take out those minions. Diabel your group pin the boss down. The rest of you follow me to the boss."

With that Toxic took off with Argo and Asuna right behind him and about 10 others behind them. By the time they reached the boss the minions were focused on Klein's group and the boss was being held in place.

"Okay any Illusionist blind him now the rest of you be careful and attack."

Toxic pulled apart his staff and jumped on top of it while the others attacked the legs. He stabbed the panther's eyes completely blinding it. This dropped the boss's health down considerable.

"Okay Illusionist focus on its sense of hearing now."

While they did that he began stabbing the ten foot beast in the back trying to hit its spinal cord as much as possible. With all of this going on the boss's health was dropping rapidly, going to red in under 3 minutes. Once it was very near Toxic jumped off its back and landed on the ground.

"Agil's group take out the ground under it and drown it. Asuna and the other Electrokinetics fry it while in the water. Argo and the Aerokinetics slice it to pieces. Finish it."

As soon as the beast broke out of Diabel's group's hold Agil's opened up a pit under it and the Hydrokinetics filled it with others. Asuna and about three other Electrokinetics electrocuted the water and Argo as well as the Aerokinetics turned it into mince meat.

In other words the boss didn't have enough time to think about getting out of the water before the congratulations message appeared above them all.

Toxic smirked as everyone cheered and put his staff back into his inventory. After he picked up Argo they walked up the steps to the fifth level.

Asuna walked up to Agil, Diabel, and Klein.

"Does he ever celebrate?"

"He never did even in the Beta. He would always move on from one boss to the next. Considering the circumstances I assume he is just trying to make it to his friends. I just feel bad for anyone who tries to get in his way, because I doubt he would even blink before cutting them down," Agil responded.

"Well I'm glad we have him. We would never be moving this fast without him. The average estimate for how long this game would take was about 2 years give or take a month or two. Now people are thinking it'll take less than a year, if not less," Diabel commented.

They all nodded in agreement.

* * *

**Toxic and Argo **

Once Toxic pushed open the door and walked out into the open air he looked around.

It looked like a coastal level, which was interesting by comparison to the other levels. This would be the first level he hadn't fought the boss before.

He saw a coastal town about two miles away and started heading that way. After about a mile he received a message which was odd, but he checked it anyways.

_"Dear Toxic,_

_It is Kaizer. My computer experts have managed to make a window to send you this message. You will be able to reply, but we won't be able to reply until they are able to open another window. I can't send messages to the others because SAO has to be completed for the next game to become easier to access. I can't do much for you in game, but if there is anything I can do on the outside world just ask. I can tell you that the others are alive and well. Also, the other games will most likely not be completed until you arrive. In AHO they continue to argue and will probably need someone to lead them. In SBH they got a riddle to solve, but they haven't made any head way as of yet. And in FG they want to have as much manpower as possible to avoid casualties. I am also guessing you will go from SAO to AHO to SBH and then finally FG. SAO will take the longest to complete by far. The current estimate for SAO is around 10 months, but the others will only take a month each at most._

_If you need anything done in the real world or any information just ask in your reply to this message."_

Well this was very interesting.

"Get the jet ready Megan."

"Where are we going sir?"

"Toxic has asked us to go and meet little Miss Argo's parents in California. All things considered I can do that for him and he said he could start doing a boss every other day if we would do this."

Now how would Toxic do that?

* * *

**The Next Day - SAO**

Toxic called a meeting in the center of the city, while no one really knew why he did it they all showed up knowing it would most likely be important.

Once he thought everyone was there Toxic went to the front of the group of people.

"How many here want to be done with this game as soon as possible?"

Everyone either raised their hand, shouted, or nodded in agreement.

"As do I. I have a deal for everyone. If I can make it so we will do a boss every other day, will you do something for me?"

Everyone was interested by this, even if they weren't sure how he would do it.

"What do want from us?" someone asked.

"I simply want you to help me clear the other games so we can help free the others from their games."

They all started murmuring and talking among themselves.

"How would you do a boss fight every other day?"

"Firstly we will set up a scouting party who can quickly get to boss rooms on day we aren't fighting a boss and they tell us what the boss is like so we can come up with a strategy beforehand."

That would be a really good idea. They didn't have to before this level because they had already fought the bosses so they would need a scouting party.

"That doesn't seem like much. How would actually make the boss fights easier?"

Argo quickly realized what he was about to do so she hopped off his shoulders.

"Everyone should back up for their own safety," she told them.

The crowd decided to listen and back up about 20 feet.

"Well the bosses won't be too much of a problem."

Toxic held his hands out and formed balls of water, earth, and air. He threw them into the air before concentrating and shooting out lighting at them vaporizing them. He started heating up and the rocks started sizzling before he started levitating and a barely visible shield appeared around him. He stayed there before landing back on the ground and he held his hands out and closed his eyes. After a few moments he opened them and everyone in front of him started floating in the air. After about 15 seconds he set them back down.

"I have known what my power was for quite some time now, but thought it would attract to much negative attention so I didn't tell anyone aside from Argo that I have the ability to copy other people's powers and use them as my own."

Everyone in the crowd was stunned, even Argo since she hadn't known he could use so many at once or had all of those.

"So will you help me conquer this game and the other three?!"

It only took a moment before everyone started cheering.

"Great. We will send out the scouting party tomorrow and from there we will start taking out a boss every other day."

* * *

**The Real World - 2 Days Later**

Kaizer got out of his limo and was followed by Megan. They walked up to the nice two story house that was near the beach and he rang the door bell. Soon a middle aged man came to the door.

"Hello?"

"Hello Mr. Tatami. I am Kaizer and Toxic wanted me to talk to you about your daughter Argo."

* * *

**A/N So how was it? You are probably thinking Toxic is way to overpowered, but you will eventually discover that great power comes with a great price. **

**Remember if anyone has power suggestions for Angel, Muse, or Death feel free to tell me or if you have suggestions about something else in the story.**

**Also until there is another break for school it will most likely be one chapter a week, maybe two if I have a lot of inspiration. **

**Until next time,**

**ToxicMeltdown Out.**


End file.
